I am a Senior Medical Scientist in Cork University Hospital with over 25 years’ experience working in Laboratory Medicine, across Biochemistry, Immunology and Point of Care Disciplines. I have an MSc in Biomedical Science and am currently undertaking an MSc in Leadership in Healthcare. I have acted as Quality Coordinator for POCT and as Deputy Quality Manager for Laboratory Medicine, CUH for the last 5 years. During this time, I have been responsible for taking the POCT department from establishment to full ISO15189:2022 accreditation status for all POCT devices. My current role involves extending POCT out to community services.

Michael O’Meara is a Specialist Registrar in Chemical Pathology. Prior to this Michael spent time as a renal registrar, haematology and transfusion registrar and completed the basic specialist training scheme in internal medicine and medical membership exams and is now working towards completion of FRCPath exams. Michael was also a medical scientist in clinical chemistry many years ago in St James’ Hospital.

After completing a PhD in Diabetes in The Queen’s University of Belfast, Jenny embarked on a career as a Clinical Scientist in Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. She was the Principal Clinical Scientist in the Regional Toxicology Laboratory from 2013-2021, before taking up her current position as a Consultant Clinical Scientist in Biochemistry and POCT in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust. Jenny is the current Chair of the Northern Ireland POCT Specialty Forum. She is also the STP training officer for Biochemistry in Northern Ireland, a member of the RCPath NI Council, and an associate editor for Labmed News. 

Paudy O Gorman in an experienced laboratory practitioner with particular interest in digital transformation. Paudy is the Laboratory Manager in the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital (MMUH), Dublin. MMUH is a level 4 teaching hospital providing a range of frontline and specialist services on a regional and national level. The Mater is the National centre for Heart and Lung Transplant, ECMO, HIPEC, and Spinal Injuries to mention but a few.  

Before taking up his current role Paudy worked as Point Of Care Testing Manager in two of Dublin’s larger University Teaching Hospitals and as Robotic Process Automation Lead & Project Facilitator with the Mater Transformation team delivering major change projects across the hospital.

Paudy is also a Lean practitioner holding a Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma. Paudy was formerly POCT Lead for the National MedLIS Project in Ireland and was the MedLIS Implementation Lead for the Mater Hospital. Paudy was responsible for the implementation of NPEx in the Mater during 2020 

Clare Connolly is a Respiratory Nurse Specialist currently working as a COPD Outreach Clinical Nurse Specialist at Galway University Hospital. With extensive experience in asthma and COPD management, she has held specialist respiratory nursing and research roles at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where she helped establish the severe asthma service. Clare has presented at national and international conferences and is committed to improving outcomes for people living with chronic respiratory disease through evidence-based, patient-centred care.

Professor Patrick Stapleton is a Consultant Microbiologist at Cork University Hospital and Professor of Medical Microbiology at University College Cork. He obtained his primary medical degree from the University of Galway in 2008, followed by basic specialist training in medicine and higher specialist training in microbiology in Ireland. This was followed by clinical and research fellowships in Medical Microbiology at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children in Ontario, Canada. He also completed a PhD focused on the application of microbial whole genome sequencing for investigating outbreaks of respiratory pathogens. He returned to Ireland in 2019 to a Consultant Microbiologist position in University Hospital Limerick. During the Covid-19 pandemic he served as a Consultant Lead for the Covid-19 Response and was responsible for introduction of point of care testing for SARS-CoV-2 in the ED.  He chaired the UL Hospital Near Patient Testing Committee in 2024. Since 2025 he has worked in Cork where he is a member of the CUH Point of Care Testing Committee. He collaborates with university researchers in UCC School of Microbiology and Tyndall Institute on development of improved antigen tests for detection of respiratory pathogens.