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• epidemiology/population health research

• Medicine
• Emergency Medicine
• General Practice
• Public Health

• Clinical Trials
• Community Medicine
• Geriatric Medicine
• Oncology
• Pharmacology

Professor Bennett's research includes a broad range of areas in population health and health services research. The main focus is on application of epidemiological and statistical methodology to research questions in the area of cancer, cardiovascular disease and medicines.

Current ongoing research areas are pharmacoepidemiology, which is the study of the use and effects of medicines in large populations. In particular, areas of interest include cancer pharmacoepidemiology, which examines the use of commonly used medicines in those with cancer, and safe and quality use of medicines in the population. The research includes collaboration with other researchers including the Irish Cancer Society's BREAST-PREDICT collaborative cancer research centre, HRB Centre for Primary Care Research, HSE, NCPE and a wide range of clinical, epidemiology, statistics, pharmacy, psychology and other disciplines.

Other research interests include the epidemiological modelling of disease, and cardiovascular disease in particular. The HRB funded StrokeCog study, lead by Prof Anne Hickey, will profile cognitive function in acute and long-term stroke patients and test the impact of a brief intervention.

Particular projects will include the area of cancer pharmacoepidemiology, which examines the use of commonly used medicines in those with cancer, to determine their effect on prognosis. Previous research in this area has identified aspirin as a potentially useful medicine in reducing the risk of lymph node positive breast cancer and associated mortality. Further ongoing collaborations with a European Cancer pharmacoepidemiology network has allowed other rare cancer and/or medicine combinations to be examined. The particular project will be guided by the interest of the applicant and the pre-clinical and other evidence to support specific hypotheses or plausible biological mechanisms.

As the number of medicines increases with age and over time it is of importance to examine the safe and quality use of medicines in the population. Another area of interest is in developing effective interventions to improve prescribing and inform patients about their medicines to improve outcomes. The potential research project can explore the barriers and obstacles to the safe and quality use of medicines, why some patients may be at higher risk than others, and ways of preventing adverse effects towards improve patient care and outcomes.