Supervisor View Full Details 2nd

• epidemiology/population health research

• Medicine
• Public Health

• Dementia
• Geriatric Medicine
• Neurology
• Vascular Medicine

Professor Hickey is the RCSI Director and one of 3 co-Directors of the HRB SPHeRE Programme, a HRB funded inter-disciplinary structured PhD programme in population health and health-services research (PHHSR). She is also PI on an Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement (ICE) award that focusses on the post-stroke cognitive impairment - dementia continuum, with a view to developing interventions to rehabilitate cognitive impairment after stroke.

In collaboration with colleagues in stroke medicine, biostatistics, epidemiology, physiotherapy, neuropsychology and health economics, Professor Hickey's research is focused on stroke prevention, the impact of stroke awareness campaigns (such as FAST) on population awareness of stroke and appropriate response, and on stroke outcomes. Along with collaborators, post-doctoral research fellows and SPHeRE PhD students, Professor Hickey is currently conducting research in cognition and adherence to secondary preventive medications and rehabilitation post-stroke; epidemiological and economic modelling of post-stroke cognitive impairment; and development of an intervention to address cognitive impairment after stroke.

Areas of research that are ongoing and under development include the following:
- a focus on the health services implications of introduction of thrombectomy in Ireland;
- developing interventions to increase adherence to secondary preventive medications and rehabilitation post-stroke to maximise patient outcomes;
- refining rehabilitation interventions for post-stroke cognitive impairment with a view to conducting a definitive RCT;
- working with the Irish Stroke Clinical Trials Network (ISCTN) to incorporate measure(s) of cognition in all stroke clinical trials in Ireland, with data capture and analysis conducted by Professor Hickey's team.