akke vellinga

Akke Vellinga 

Akke.vellinganuigalway.ie

Epidemiologist
School Of Medicine

Akke Vellinga is an epidemiologist. She started working for the NUI Galway in 2005. She now divides her time between two half time positions; a Lectureship in Bacteriology (Epidemiology) and a Senior Lectureship in Primary Care.

Akke's research experience spans epidemiological and health services research, on a variety of topics, from vaccination coverage and vaccination evaluation to zoonotic diseases and asthma and allergies. Her interest in statistical modelling is clear from the papers on these topics.

She holds a PhD in Medicine (Epidemiology), a Master in Epidemiology, MSC, BSc and Diploma in Health Economics, HDip Ed and Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education.

Research Interest

• Antimicrobial prescribing and resistance
• Practical applications of statistical modelling
• Exploration of existing databases
• Application of social marketing techniques in interventions to stem the use of antimicrobials

Projects

• Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement (ICE) Award ’Urinary Tract Infection in the Community – the UTI-C programme: an international meta-analysis and a complex intervention to improve the quantity and quality of antimicrobial prescribing in general practice’. This is a continuation of our project 'antimicrobial prescribing and resistance in general practice', a project in collaboration with the Discipline of General Practice, funded by the HRB from 2009-2011. Results from this project can be found on our webpages http://www.antibiotics.nuigalway.ie/
• GIS mapping of antimicrobial resistance. Looking for patterns in the geographical spread of antimicrobial resistance of E.coli from urinary tract infections
• SPHERE : A randomised controlled trial of tailored practice and patient care plans with parallel qualitative, economic and policy analyses.Now the 5 year follow up of this study has started.
• Gestational diabetes. Involvement in the study and data analysis of pregnant mothers with diabetes.

Teaching

Postgraduate Teaching:

Selected publications

Vellinga A, Tansey S, Hanahoe B, Bennett K, Murphy AW, Cormican M. Trimethoprim and ciprofloxacin resistance and prescribing in E.coli associated urinary tract infection: a multilevel model. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 2012 doi: 10.1093/jac/dks222.

Vellinga A, Bennett K, Murphy AW, Cormican M. Principles of multilevel analysis and its relevance to studies of antimicrobial resistance. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 2012 doi: 10.1093/jac/dks237. 

Cormican M, Vellinga A. Existing classes of antibiotics are probably the best we will ever have. BMJ 2012. http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e3369

Cormican M, Vellinga A. Antibiotic drug research and development ( BMJ 2012; 344 doi: 10.1136/bmj.e2591). Rapid response BMJ 2012, May 7^th. http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e2591/rr/583251

Murphy M, Vellinga A, MacDermott M, Walkin S. Termination of Pregnancy: Attitudes and Clinical Experiences of Irish GPs and GPs-in-training. European Journal of General Practice 2012 (accepted).

Vellinga A, Zawiejska A, Harreiter J,  Buckley BS,  Di Cianni G, Lapolla A, Corcoy R, Simmons D, Chico A, Damm P, Desoye G, Devlieger R, Hill D, Kautzky-Willer A, Klemetti M, Mathiesen E, Rebollo P, Snoek F, Tikkanen M, Timmerman D, van Assche A, van Poppel M, Wender-Oegowska E, Dunne F. Associations of body mass index (BMI) and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) with neonatal and maternal pregnancy outcomes in a multicentre European database. ISRN Obesity 2012 (in press).

Fennell J, Vellinga A, Hanahoe B, Morris D, Boyle F, Higgins F, Lyons M, O’Connell K, Keady D, Cormican M. Progressive increase in prevalence of ESBL production among Enterobacteriaceae from clinical specimens from 2004 to 2008. BMC Infectious Diseases 2012, 12:116. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/12/116

Vellinga A; Murphy AW, O'Brien E. Thirty-minute compared to standardised office blood pressure measurement in general practice. Br J Gen Pract 2012, 62: 126.

Vellinga A, Cormican M, Hanahoe B, Bennett K, Murphy AW. Antimicrobial management of urinary tract infection in general practice in Ireland. BMC Family Practice 2011, 12: 108

Cormican M, Myrphy AW, Vellinga A. Interpreting asymptomatic bacteriuria. BMJ 2011 Aug 4;343:d4780.

Buckley BS, Harreiter J, Damm P, Corcoy R, Chico A, Simmons D, Vellinga A, Desoye G, Kautzky-Willer A, van Assche A, Mathiesen E, Tikkanen M, Klemetti M, Lapolla A, Di Cianni G, Snoek F, van Poppel M, Wender-Oegowska E, Zawiejska A, Hill D, Rebollo P, Devlieger R, Timmerman D, Dunne F. Gestational diabetes mellitus in Europe: prevalence and current practice and barriers in screening. A review.  Diabetic Medicine, June 2011.   

Vellinga A, Cormican M, Hanahoe B, Murphy AW.Opt-out as an acceptable method of obtaining consent in medical research: a short report. BMC Medical Research Methodology 2011, 11:40.

Vellinga A, Murphy AW, Hanahoe B, Bennett K, Cormican M. A multilevel analysis of trimethoprim and ciprofloxacin prescribing and resistance of uropathogenic E.coli in general practice. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 2010; doi: 10.1093/jac/dkq149.

Vellinga A, Cormican M, Hanahoe B, Murphy AW. Predictive value of antimicrobial susceptibility from previous urinary tract infection in the treatment of re-infection. British Journal of General Practice, July 2010.

Galvin S, Boyle F, Hickey P, Vellinga A, Morris D, Cormican M. Enumeration and characterization of antimicrobial-resistant E. coli in effluent from municipal, hospital and secondary treated sources. Accepted for publication in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/AEM.02898-09v1

WestREN: a description of an Irish academic general practice research network. BMC Family Practice 2010, 11:74 doi:10.1186/1471-2296-11-74

Gorman J, Vellinga A, Gilmartin JJ, O’Keeffe ST. Frequency and Risk factors Associated with Emergency Medical Readmissions in Galway University Hospitals.  Irish Journal of Medical Science, 2009

O'Connell E, Brennan W, Cormican M, Glacken M, O'Donovan D, Vellinga A, Cahill N, Lysaght F,  O'Donnell J. Chlamydia trachomatis infection and sexual behaviour among female students attending higher education in the Republic of Ireland. BMC Public Health. 2009; 9: 397.

Vellinga A, O’Donovan D, De La Harpe D. Length of stay and associated costs of obesity related hospital admissions in Ireland.  BMC Health Services Research 2008, 8: 88.

Vellinga A, Howell F, O’Donovan D. The impact of the smoking ban in Ireland: modelling hospital admissions for acute myocardial infarctions. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2007: 61(S1); A6.

Vellinga A, Droste JHJ, Vermeire PA, Desager K, De Backer WA, Nelen VJ, Weyler JJ. Changes in respiratory and allergic symptoms in schoolchildren from 1996 to 2002, results from the ISAAC surveys in Antwerp, Belgium. Acta Clinica Belgica 2005: 60; 219-225.

Vellinga A, Depoorter AM, Van Damme P. Vaccination coverage estimates by EPI cluster sampling survey of children (18-24 months) in Flanders, Belgium. Acta Paediatrica 2005. 91:599-603.

Vellinga A, Van Loock F. The dioxin crisis as experiment to determine poultry-related campylobacter enteritis. Emerging Infectious Diseases 2002. 8:19-22.

Vellinga A., Van Damme P., Joossens E., Goossens H. Response to diphtheria booster vaccination in healthy adults: vaccine trial. British Medical Journal 2000. 320:217.

Vellinga A., van Damme P., Bruckers L., Weyler J., Molenberghs G., Meheus A Modelling longterm persistence of anti-HBs after vaccination. Journal of Medical Virology 1999: 57; 100-103

Click on this link for all Akke Vellinga's publications on PubMed