Geraldine Creaton is a founder member of the IMSN and has served in executive roles since its foundation.  A graduate of the School of Pharmacy, University of Dublin Trinity College, Geraldine holds a MSc in Quality and Safety in Healthcare Management from the RCSI Institute of Leadership.  Geraldine has served as the Council member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland. She was awarded the Helix Health Pharmacist Award for Excellence in Hospital Pharmacy (2007).  Geraldine is co-author of the first collaborative study of  Medication Safety In Ireland (Ir. Pharm J (2007), 68-73) and lectured on Medication Safety to medical students and Nurse Prescribers in training at the University of Limerick.  Geraldine is Chief Pharmacist at St John’s Hospital, Limerick and Medication Safety Lead.

Kate O’Flaherty is the Director of the National Patient Safety Office (NPSO) at the Department of Health.

The NPSO provides leadership and strategic direction to deliver key patient safety policy objectives for Ireland, working closely with a wide range of stakeholders and organisations both nationally and internationally.

Kate took up the role of NPSO Director in April 2023, having worked in a number of other roles in the Department over the previous decade.

Kate led the implementation of the cross-Government Healthy Ireland initiative from 2013 to 2020. She was a member of the COVID-19 NPHET during 2020 and chaired its Behavioural Change sub-group, and also led Population Health Screening policy in the Department from 2020 to 2023.

Kate’s professional background includes pharmacy, professional regulation, journalism and communications.

Professor Cathy Harrison is the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Northern Ireland (NI), working at the Department of Health.  In this role Cathy is the head of the pharmacy profession in Northern Ireland and the most senior professional advisor to the Minister of Health on pharmaceutical and medicines issues. 

Cathy is a qualified pharmacist and undertook her pharmacy undergraduate degree at Liverpool John Moore’s University and postgraduate degree at Queen’s University, Belfast.  After graduation in 1989 she worked in community pharmacy in England and Northern Ireland before joining the Department of Health in 2005 where she was appointed as Chief Pharmaceutical Officer in 2020.

Cathy leads a wide-ranging work programme involving pharmacy and medicines policy and legislation. She is Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for the Department’s Transforming Medication Safety in Northern Ireland Strategy (TMSNI) and also co-chair of the Medication Safety Oversight Board alongside the Chief Medical Officer for Northern Ireland.

Cathy has an interest in the integration of multi-skilled pharmacy teams across health and social care sectors, combining professional and technical skills with redesigned services and new technologies.

Cathy is committed to realising pharmacy’s greater contribution to better health outcomes for patients and more effective utilisation of health resources.

Cathy is honorary Professor of Practice at Queen’s University Belfast.

Dr Mehigan is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine working at University Hospital Limerick and Injury Unit, Ennis Hospital. He graduated from Trinity College Dublin 1990 and completed vocational/GP training in Edinburgh.

Dr Mehigan spent a couple of years working in remote areas of Western Australia before returning to the UK where he completed an MSc in Sports Medicine. Dr Mehigan joined the Mitsubishi World Rally team for a couple of fun filled years before retraining in Emergency Medicine on the West Yorkshire scheme.

Dr Mehigan was appointed as a Consultant to Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust however returned to Ireland in 2010 to work in Limerick. He continued his work in Sports Medicine providing services to Leeds Rugby, Munster Rugby, IRFU and the Irish Horse Racing Board.

Dr Mehigan was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 2018 and has become an advocate for PD, particularly championing the “Get It on Time” quality improvement programme. Dr Mehigan is married to Mary and has two adult sons Conor and Fergal.

Gideon-Phil Meyer started his medical career at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He worked in the Western Cape gathering extensive experience in Trauma and Emergency Medicine in a resource limited setting. After receiving a Diploma in Primary Emergency Care, he moved to Ireland to further his career in Emergency Medicine and is a core specialist trainee in Emergency Medicine at University Hospital Limerick. He has most recently completed his Master’s in Public Health at the University of Manchester focusing on guideline development, implementation science, healthcare management and digital health innovation.

Niamh started her pharmacy career in hospital in the NHS in the UK, & subsequently in hospital and community pharmacy in Australia, before returning to her native Dublin. She has a passion for improving medication safety for patients, through sharing of knowledge and solutions locally, nationally and internationally. She has a particular clinical interest in venous thromboembolism prevention.

Niamh is the current Chair of the Irish Medication Safety Network (IMSN), a voluntary, independent group of hospital pharmacists from public and private Irish hospitals, with aim to improve patient safety with regard to the use of medicines. The network publishes guidance via our website www.imsn.ie in form of alerts, briefing documents and guidelines for Irish hospitals to minimise harm from high risk medicines. The IMSN liaises with state bodies including the Department of Health, HPRA, HSE, HIQA, and the States Claim Agency, in addition to international medication safety community and with manufacturers of medications, to enhance safe use of medicines. The IMSN will host the first all-island medication safety conference at Dublin castle in Nov 2024.

Niamh holds a BPharm (Hons) degree & postgraduate certificate in Pharmacy practice from University College London, an MSc in Health Service Management from Trinity College Dublin, and a postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare (Risk Management & Quality) from University College Dublin. She is a clinical lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, a member of the international Pharmacists Anticoagulation Care Taskforce (iPACT) and of the clinical advisory group for the national Venous Thromboembolism patient safety programme.

Lead Pharmacist for Medication Safety for Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland. With over 25 years’ experience in the Healthcare sector, underpinned by 18 years in dedicated strategic and operational medication safety roles.  

Angela supported the Department of Health to develop ‘Transforming Medication Safety in Northern Ireland’ and is now leading its implementation. She also leads the trusts’ Medication Safety Team who work collaboratively across the region to prevent avoidable medication related harm and protect patient safety. 

Angela has qualifications and experience in clinical pharmacy, management and leadership, patient safety and risk management, research, quality improvement and Human Factors. She has started a PhD at the University of Reading to develop and pilot an e-prescribing safety assessment framework for secondary care underpinned by Human Factors principles and methodologies.

Laura Sahm is Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Vice Dean at the School of Pharmacy, UCC. Laura trained in the UK and has been a pharmacist since 1991.

Laura has worked in community, hospital, industry and in the UK, Germany and Ireland.

Laura’s interest and research in health literaccy stems from her passion to put the person at the centre of the medicine journey.

Her work seeks to highlight the importance of clear and simple communication.

Laura and Michelle have together developed the microcredential: An introduction to health literacy for health and social care professions, to raise awareness of health literacy.

Dr Michelle O’Driscoll is a pharmacist, Lecturer of Clinical Pharmacy at the School of Pharmacy UCC, and Senior Postdoctoral Researcher at the National Suicide Research Foundation.

Michelle first encountered the concept of health literacy during her undergraduate research in 2012, which found that one in five patients did not understand the instructions on a box of paracetamol. She continued to frequently witness evidence of these health literacy challenges in practice as a community pharmacist, and is passionate about addressing it through her research and educational roles.

Michelle has recently launched the new UCC Microcredential “An Introduction to Health Literacy for Health and Social Care Professions” with colleague Prof. Laura Sahm, which seeks to educate healthcare professionals on how to best educate and support patients. Michelle has worked with the Health Research Board, the Health Service Executive, the Department of Health, the National Cancer Control Programme and Healthy Ireland on optimising healthcare professional and patient education and information sources. She also provides accessible healthcare information to the general public via a weekly wellbeing column.

Joan has lived and worked in England, being involved in Welfare Rights there before moving onto work in Self Management both within and outside the NHS.  She, and her team, provided people who were living with long-term health conditions and carers,  an eight-week self management course.   They were a unique organisation in that staff/volunteers who delivered the programme, like herself, live with health conditions or had caring responsibilities. The aim was to improve confidence in being part of their health journey. She has also been involved with Shared Decision Making, Health Literacy and training health care students and professionals. 

Since returning back to NI, she has become involved as a service user/person with lived experience with different projects.  She brings her skill, knowledge and experience as a service user to the table. As we move forward, service user input is more and more important as they can now help shape services.

Tiberius Pereira is a co-founder of Patient Safety Ireland (PFPSI), formed 12 years ago under a World Health Organisation programme. As defined by the WHO, PFPSI aims to engage and empower patients and families to be active partners and advocates in their own care. PFPSI members work in partnership and collaboration with health professionals and policy-makers to make health services safer in Ireland and enable the patient voice to be heard fully https://www.who.int/initiatives/patients-for-patient-safety). 

Their framework for action is the WHO Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030. The GPSAP has been adopted by the Department of Health and HSE in Ireland. They also advocate for the adoption of the WHO Patient Safety Rights Charter at every level of healthcare in Ireland.   

Engaging and empowering people is Commitment 1 of the HSE Patient Safety Strategy 2019-2024. It is also one of the five strategies of the WHO global strategy on people-centred and integrated health services (PCIHS) and a key element of quality Universal Healthcare.

Every person will access healthcare at some point. They advocate for a joined-up approach to patient empowerment through health literacy across education, healthcare and communities. The aim of this initiative is to empower everybody in Ireland with the knowledge, skills and confidence to be active partners and advocates for their own care and that of their loved ones. The Health Literacy Initiative is supported and endorsed by the largest advocacy groups in Ireland as well as the WHO, ISQua and other national and international groups. They wish to acknowledge the support and guidance of the International Health Literacy Association.

Patients for Patient Safety Ireland is always seeking new members. More info on info@patientsforpatientsafety.ie or https://patientsforpatientsafety.ie/

Professor Mike Scott has held a number of positions within the hospital service sector of the Health and Social Care System in Northern Ireland since registration as a pharmacist  in 1982. He was awarded a PhD in Pharmacology in 1982.

He is currently the Director of the Regional Medicines Optimisation Innovation Centre (MOIC) in Northern Ireland having  previously  been the Head of Pharmacy and Medicines Management in the Northern Health and Social Care Trust since 2007.  He has published widely in numerous peer reviewed journals in respect of pharmacy practice research and medicines optimisation.

In 1994 he established the first academic practice unit in the province in conjunction with the Queens University of Belfast.  In 2004 he was made a fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland.  In June 2009 he was made an honorary Professor of Pharmacy Practice at QUB.  He was awarded the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists gold medal for outstanding contribution to the health service at national level in 2010. 

In 2016 he was awarded the United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy Association Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2017 he was part of the expert group working on the technical documents for the WHO Global Challenge to reduce avoidable medication related harm by 50% over 5 years. Most recently he was awarded a visiting professorship with Ulster University (2021).

He received an MBE for services to pharmacy in Northern Ireland  in 2022.

Domenica graduated in Mental Health Nursing from Ulster University in November 1994.  Since then she has worked across various mental health clinical settings in Private, Voluntary, Public and HSC care delivery organisations.

She has held numerous leadership roles, many of which have focused on transformation, change management and improvement within Mental Health. 

Since 2018, Domenica has worked in dedicated quality improvement positions and is an Improvement Advisor graduate of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.  She currently works as a Regional Senior Improvement Advisor with Health and Social Care Quality Improvement (HSCQI) Hub and leads regional improvement programmes aligned to the ‘Transforming Medication Safety for Northern Ireland’ (TMSNI) programme team.

Fiona Kirkpatrick is a Senior Principal Pharmaceutical Officer working at the Department of Health.  In this role Fiona is one of the Department’s senior advisors on Pharmacy and Medicines issues and is responsible for providing expert professional advice and support to the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer. Fiona is responsible for supporting the professional leadership, performance and development of the profession in Northern Ireland, including pharmacy and medicines related policy. She is also involved in establishing the strategic direction for pharmacy and medicines optimisation, including medication safety.

Fiona is a qualified pharmacist and undertook her pharmacy undergraduate degree at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and postgraduate degree at Queen’s University, Belfast.

After graduation in 2008 Fiona worked in hospital pharmacy, specialising in clinical pharmacy in both cardiology and medicines optimisation for older people, before joining the Department of Health in 2021 in the role of Senior Principal Pharmaceutical Officer.

Fiona has specific responsibilities in the area of medication safety, including providing policy support to the Transforming Medication Safety Northern Ireland (TMSNI) strategy implementation group, liaising with colleagues across the UK on medication safety issues having regular engagement with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and also providing input to the Department’s Northern Ireland Medication Safety Oversight Board.

Andrea is a pharmacist employed by SPPG to co-ordinate the Integrated Prescribing workplan. 

She recently led a transformation programme to enable New Models of Prescribing (NMOP) at the interface between secondary and primary care. Previously, Northern Ireland lacked a mechanism to allow many prescribers working at the interface to prescribe medication directly to the patient that could then be dispensed by community pharmacists. The programme included pilot projects involving physiotherapist, heart failure nurse and mental health prescribers working in Trust outpatient clinics and community settings.

Andrea has over twenty-five years’ experience working as a Pharmacy Adviser and as a part-time tutor for NI Centre for Pharmacy and Learning Development. Recently, she was involved in the regional implementation of GP Pharmacists in NI by designing and delivering the Practice Based Pharmacist Foundation Programme for new recruits to general practice.

In her current role, Andrea’s key areas of focus include enabling the successful roll-out of NMOP and overseeing the implementation of governance processes to enable Medical and Non-Medical Prescribers to prescribe within primary care and at the interface between secondary and primary care.

Dr Tamasine Grimes is Associate Professor in the Practice of Pharmacy, Trinity College Dublin and a practising pharmacist, with over two decades experience working in both hospital and community settings.

She was an invited member of the Expert Taskforce to support the expansion of the role of pharmacists in Ireland.

Tamasine’s research and teaching focus on patient safety in medication use.

Professor Bryony Dean Franklin is a hospital pharmacist by background, with 30 years’ experience of researching medication safety, medication use in practice and patient safety more generally. 

She is Professor of Medication Safety at UCL School of Pharmacy, Executive Lead Pharmacist (Research) at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Director of the NIHR North West London Patient Safety Research Collaboration, and a theme lead for the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance at Imperial College London. She is also Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal BMJ Quality and Safety. 

Professor Franklin has published widely on medication safety, the evaluation of various technologies designed to reduce errors, and the patient’s role in patient safety. Her current post combines research, quality improvement, education and training, medical publishing and hospital pharmacy practice. 

She is co-editor of the textbook “Safety in Medication Use” and co-author of “Going into Hospital? A guide for patients, carers and families”, a book aimed at the general public.

Nikhil Prakash Gupta serves as a Technical Officer in the Patient Safety Flagship team at the World Health Organization (WHO) Headquarters in Geneva. He was instrumental in authoring and coordinating the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030 and now works on WHO’s global agenda on patient safety measurement. In 2024, he spearheaded the inaugural Global Patient Safety Report, derived from a Global Member State survey.

Nikhil’s responsibilities include implementing the Global Patient Safety Action Plan, establishing patient safety standards and assessment tools, Human Factors application and harnessing digital technologies to improve patient safety across health systems. Since joining WHO’s global patient safety team in 2018, he has drawn on prior experience from WHO country offices in India and the Maldives, where he was pivotal in developing India’s National Patient Safety Implementation Framework. His early career contributions with the National Health Systems Resource Center in India included work on the Quality Assurance Framework for Public Health Facilities, along with significant roles in initiatives on WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) in Healthcare Facilities and Standard Treatment Guidelines in India.

I’m a Registered Nurse Learning Disability, qualified 27 years, working with people with Intellectual Disability (ID) in variety of inpatient, private care home and community services.  Specialising in working with children with ID the past 14 years, developing medication monitoring clinics in previous role in another trust. I moved to SHSCT in 2021 to current role of Senior Nurse Practitioner in medication monitoring service in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service – Intellectual Disability (CAMHS ID).

The medication monitoring service was developed in CAMHS ID in the SHSCT approximately 10 years ago, developing to the current clinic, completing all clinical observations and monitoring response to the medications.  We provide holistic nursing care to children attending the service, using individualised reasonable adjustments and specialised desensitisation techniques to build positive experiences in clinical environments and clinical procedures.

I am a registered Learning Disability Nurse qualified for 14 years. I have worked across both adult and children’s services in both community services and residential care. I have been in my current role in medication monitoring for 2.5 years within the CAMHS ID service working with children and young people with an intellectual disability and mental health/behavioural need.

Olivia Gallagher is an experienced pharmacist who completed her undergraduate training at Trinity College and MPharm through RCSI.

With a solid foundation in community pharmacy, Olivia transitioned to a specialised role in antimicrobial stewardship in 2021. Passionate about optimising the use of antimicrobials, she is an integral member of the infection control and antimicrobial stewardship team covering HSE Dublin South and Wicklow. She works closely with the consultant microbiologist and infection control nurses to implement the antimicrobial stewardship programme across older persons and mental health residential facilities, primary care, and dental services.

Olivia is currently undertaking a Professional Diploma in Infectious Diseases, enhancing her ability to contribute to safe patient care.

I am Áine Sweeney, a Senior Pharmacist at Tallaght University Hospital with over three years of experience in clinical pharmacy. Currently, I work in the ICU, where I focus on optimising medication therapies for critically ill patients. My background includes working across paediatric and general medical wards, which has given me a comprehensive view of patient needs across specialties.

Recently, I have been conducting research, as part of my MSc in Clinical Pharmacy in UCC, on an innovative project focused on pharmacy technicians taking medication histories in the hospital setting—a role traditionally held by pharmacists. This project aims to enhance medication accuracy and safety, particularly during patient admission. Working closely with management, I’ve developed and implemented a training program to equip technicians with the skills necessary to take comprehensive medication histories. I am passionate about advancing medication safety through evidence-based practices and am excited to share insights from this initiative at the conference.

Gillian has a BSc in Nursing Sciences (with First Class Honours – Sheila Harrison Award for Academic Excellence), a PG Dip Specialist Nursing Practice (DN) and a MSc in Developing Healthcare in Practice (Commendation).

Her experience includes District Nursing Team Lead (BHSCT); Northern Ireland Practice and Education Council (NIPEC) Professional Officer – Transforming Nursing and Midwifery Data; Falls Prevention and Management Service Strategic Lead (SET) and she was shortlisted for Royal College of Nursing Nurse of the Year Awards 2024.

She is currently responsible for Nursing and Midwifery deployment of encompass in SET (deputise for Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer), Operational Management of N&M DIPT, Clinical Safety in digital deployment of encompass for Nursing and Midwifery (1st cohort of Clinical Safety Officer Role in NI), Digital Capacity and Capability for Nursing and Midwifery and Nursing and Midwifery Information with a view to service development, improvement and research through digital practice.