Working Life: The Mercy aims to provide excellent patient services
Dr. Evelyn Flanagan, Research Manager, Mercy University Hospital, Cork. Picture: Jim Coughlan.
My day gets underway with about an hour of yoga at a studio in Cork city.
At my desk in MUH, I go through emails and see if anything urgent has come in. As the hospital’s research manager, I’m directly involved in projects that advance medical knowledge, improve patient care and contribute to life-saving treatments. Being part of this innovation is inherently rewarding because you witness the tangible outcomes that can change people’s lives.
The nature of research involves collaboration/partnerships between our clinical staff and external research bodies like University College Cork. This morning, I spent some time on the phone with Mary-Claire O’Regan, interim director of operations and clinical trials at the HRB Clinical Research Facility in UCC. We are working on fostering greater academic and clinical alignment between ourselves and UCC.
Another component of my role is educating and mentoring junior staff, designing protocols for their research, helping with data management and analysis, and working to have their findings published in medical journals. We have a diverse portfolio of research projects at MUH, covering topics from AI in medicine to the microbiome to health leadership to clinical trials in dementia. All research carried out in hospitals needs to meet ethical and regulatory requirements. Ensuring compliance with these requirements is another important part of my role.
I try to get out for a walk. I enjoy spending time outdoors.
Afternoons involve more admin-type work: strategising, project coordination, and developing budgets for research grant applications or supporting the applications themselves, which are made at national and EU levels.
Ultimately, I’m working on embedding a culture of research across the hospital because research that enhances patient care leads to greater satisfaction and a more empowered patient population. MUH’s mission is to provide excellent patient services to maintain and improve the health and wellbeing of those we serve.
Home. Downtime involves more yoga, playing tennis, art history, reading, getting out in nature and watercolour painting. I try to make it to the Opera House in Cork as much as possible.
