andrew murphy

As Foundation Professor since 1997, I have been responsible for developing under graduate education in general practice and post graduate education in primary care in the University and region. I am also a general practitioner principal in a semi-rural practice in Turloughmore County Galway.

I qualified in medicine from Trinity College Dublin in 1988, completed my higher general practice training in Dublin 1992, was awarded an MD in 1996, a Fellowship of the Royal College of General Practitioners in London in 2004 and a Masters in Clinical Epidemiology in Australia in 2011. I was a Visiting Professor to the University of Adelaide and Flinders University in Australia for the year of 2004. 

I was the inaugural Chair of the University Research Ethics Committee (2005-08) and past Chair (2004-08) and Secretary (2000-04) of the Association of University Departments of General Practice in Ireland. I have contributed to national policy development as the Chair of the Primary Care Sub-Committee of the Ministerial Advisory Forum of the Cardiovascular Strategy (2000-6) and a member of the Ministerial Expert Group on Resource Allocation and Financing in the Health Sector (2009-10). And currently I am a member of the Hypertension Committee of the Irish Heart Foundation (2008-) and the National Atrial Fibrillation Working Group (2010-).

Married with three boys, I strive continuously to maintain my middle ranking in the middle of the local sailing Cruisers 2 leagues!

Research interests

My research, largely quantitative and always collaborative, addresses chronic disease management and professional practice in the community. I would love it to be of international significance, but citation indices often say otherwise! My Hirsch-index (for all its limitations!) in March 2011 is 12 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index).

I was principal investigator of the Health Research Board (HRB) funded five year research programme on the provision of secondary cardiac care in the community which is the largest non-pharmaceutical trial ever conducted on the island of Ireland ( http://www.spherestudy.com/) . 

I am currently enjoying work collaborative work looking at antimicrobial resistance in the community ( http://www.antibiotics.nuigalway.ie/)

I am  also Inaugural Chair, since 2006, of the multidisciplinary NUI Galway Centre for Clinical Health Services Research and Development http://www.nuigalway.ie/cchsrd/

Selected publications

Murphy K, Casey D, Devane D, Cooney A, McCarthy B, Mee L, Nichulain M, Murphy AW, Newell J, O' Shea E. A cluster randomised controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of a structured pulmonary rehabilitation education programme for improving the health status of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): The PRINCE Study protocol. BMC Pulm Med. 2011 Jan; 11:4.

Glynn LG, Murphy AW, Smith SM, Schroeder K, Fahey T. Interventions used to improve control of blood pressure in patients with hypertension. Cochrane Database Syst Rev . 2010 Mar; (3):CD005182.

Vellinga A, Cormican M, Hanahoe B, Murphy AW. Predictive value of antimicrobial susceptibility from previous urinary tract infection in the treatment of re-infection. Br J Gen Pract . 2010 Jul; 60(576):511-3.

Gillespie P, O'Shea E, Murphy AW, Byrne MC, Byrne M, Smith SM, Cupples ME. The cost-effectiveness of the SPHERE intervention for the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease. Int J Technol Assess Health Care 2010 Jul; 26(3):263-71.

Buckley BS, Simpson CR, McLernon DJ, Hannaford PC, Murphy AW. Considerable differences exist between prevalent and incident myocardial infarction cohorts derived from the same population. J Clin Epidemiol 2010 Dec; 63(12):1351-7.

Murphy AW, Cupples ME, Smith SM, Byrne M, Byrne MC, Newell J; SPHERE study team. Effect of tailored practice and patient care plans on secondary prevention of heart disease in general practice: cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ 2009 Oct; 339:b4220.

Buckley BS, Simpson CR, McLernon DJ, Murphy AW, Hannaford PC. Five year prognosis in patients with angina identified in primary care: incident cohort study. BMJ 2009 Aug; 339:b3058.

Click here for full publication list on PubMed

Service development

The department collaborates closely with the HSE and the following are examples of service development in which I have been involved:

• Donegal Area Rapid Treatment Study and Prehospital Emergency Care Project in East Midlands. Both these projects provided in rural and remote areas prehospital thrombolysis and early defibrillation.
• Retinal Screening for patients with Diabetes in HSE West. This is the first such programme in Ireland.
  

Teaching

Postgraduate

Diplomas in Primary Care, Clinical Primary Care (for which I am director), Practice & Community Nursing:

Postgraduate Supervision

Completed PhD’s

• Akke Vellinga (2011) Co-supervisor with Prof Martin Cormican
  Antibiotic prescribing and resistance in Irish general practice.
• Niamh Gallagher (2010) Co-supervisor with Dr Anne MacFarlane
  Patients’ perspectives of continuity of care in an out of hours general practice co-operative
• Brian Buckley (2007)
  Secondary prevention of ischaemic heart disease: a community cohort study of 1, 609 people with a diagnosis of established ischaemic heart disease
• Victoria Ononeze (2004)
  The individual experience of heart disease: A qualitative study of the implications in heart disease prevention and management
• Molly Byrne (2003) in collaboration with Dr Jane Walsh [Psychology] 
  Secondary prevention of coronary heart disease: patients beliefs and health related behaviour

Completed MD’s

• Liam Glynn (2006)
  Chronic kidney disease and mortality and morbidity among patients with established cardiovascular disease
• Tom Brett (2001)
  Prostate cancer in general practice: a five year prospective study

Current PhD’s in Primary Care

• Ruth McMenamin (2008- ) Co-supervisor with Dr Anne MacFarlane
  An investigation of the impact of Service Learning on Students, Community Partners and Academic Staff in Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy at NUI Galway with an emphasis on the students experiences of civic engagement/with an emphasis on service users

Completed Masters in Primary Care

• Caroline Poland (2010)
  A pilot RCT of smoking cessation
• Siobhan Woods (2007)
  Do patients feel satisfied with the care they receive in the Heartwatch programme?
• Kathy McSharry (2005)
  A cross-sectional study and four-year follow-up of 120 patients with a diagnosis of health failure.
• Brigid Mary Crean (2003)
  Primary care teamwork in County Donegal.

Masters in Business Administration (UCD)

• Anna-Marie Lanigan (2000)
  Evaluation of the provision of a quality out-of-hours family doctor service?: ’Caredoc’

Future Work

For the three-year period 2009-2011 I hope to develop the following initiatives, among others:

• Complete my Masters in Clinical Epidemiology
• Hand over Head of Department in July 2009
• Develop Special Study Options in General Practice
• Continue chronic disease management research