The SOPHIE Study is a research study at University College Cork and Cork University Maternity Hospital/Cork University Hospital. Researchers at INFANT, UCC are looking for healthy children aged 5-11 years old to take part in this study. The study is looking to recruit more participants. 

• What is the Study? 

‘SOPHIE’ is an acronym for ‘School-aged Outcomes Post Hypoxic Ischaemic Encephalopathy’. Some children are diagnosed with hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) after birth. These babies need extra help after delivery, due to issues with oxygen and blood flow to their brain. They are admitted to the neonatal unit and receive special treatment to help their brain to recover.

There is very little information on how children who have been diagnosed with HIE in the newborn period continue to develop after two years of age. We know that some children have difficulties at school, but we don’t know how to identify these children early so that we can intervene sooner and improve their long-term outcomes.

We are looking for healthy children to volunteer also to have a developmental assessment and if they wish, an MRI brain scan.

The project is supervised by supervisors from University College Cork, Cork University Hospital, and INFANT Research Centre.

• Who is it for? 

Healthy children aged 5-11 years old who have no known developmental issues. Children are eligible if they were born after 36 weeks gestation and were not admitted to the neonatal unit within 12 hours of birth.

• What do I need to do?

The study has two parts – the first visit is for the developmental assessment. The second visit is optional, for an MRI brain scan. Both visits take place at Cork University Hospital.

1. Developmental assessment: This takes about 1.5 hours and involves a brief IQ test (using pictures and puzzles) and playing games on an iPad.
2. MRI Brain: The scan itself takes about 20 minutes but you would be in CUH for about 1 hour in total.
   1. View more information about the MRI scan here: CUH Paediatric MRI (SOPHIE Study)

• Why is this study being done?

By conducting these tests, we hope to gain information on how to identify issues earlier and improve long-term outcome in children diagnosed with HIE in the newborn period.

• What are the benefits and risks of participating in this study?

By participating in this study, you are contributing to important research on childhood development and brain injury. The aim is that the results from this study will help to improve the outcomes for children and gain specific interventions sooner to maximise their developmental growth over early childhood.

It may be of interest to you or your child to have a developmental check, an IQ test, and/or an MRI brain scan. If there are findings from either visit that need to be discussed or addressed, a member of the consultant team will meet with the family and refer them to the appropriate services if necessary.

• What is the time commitment?

1.5 hours for the developmental assessment which will take place in the Cork University Hospital.

1 hour for the MRI brain (20 minutes scanning time) which will take place in the Cork University Hospital.

• What will happen to the results of this study?

The results of this study will be published in academic journals and presented at scientific meetings. You will never be identified individually during these presentations or any reports or publications. To ensure confidentiality, the data generated during this study is coded with a unique Study ID Number that will be allocated once your child is recruited to the study.

University College Cork (UCC) is the study’s Sponsor and will act as the data controller for this study. Any personal data which you provide to the University will be treated with the highest standards of security and confidentiality, in accordance with Irish and European Data Protection legislation.

• Where can I get more information?

If you have any further questions regarding this study, please contact Dr Anne Murray: SOPHIE@ucc.ie

• Interested in taking part in the study?

Fill out the enquiry form and a member of the research team will contact you: https://forms.office.com/e/1ajEMTUmDY

Overview

The AIM-HIGH Feasibility Study is a research study at the INFANT Research Centre at University College Cork (UCC) and Cork University Maternity Hospital(CUMH). Researchers at INFANT, UCC are looking for healthy infants aged between 22 – 26 months to take part in this study.

Express Interest here: https://forms.office.com/e/ZzAkScCcDG 

What is the Study?

In the INFANT Research Centre, we have developed a new way of measuring how well your child thinks, understands and learns about the world around them. The new test, CogniToT, is an interactive 20-minute tablet-based test involving playful tasks. Recently we have improved the design so that children with poorer vision can also complete the tasks. Before we test this in high-risk infants, but we need to see how healthy, normal-sighted children also perform on this new version. This is why we are asking for healthy children (22 – 26 months) to participate in this study.  

The study is supervised by clinical consultants from University College Cork, Cork University Hospital, and INFANT Research Centre.

Who is it for?

Healthy infants, born at term, now aged between 22- 26 months with no known developmental or visual concerns.

What do I need to do?

• Attend a 1-hour visit at the INFANT Research Centre, Cork University Hospital.

During the visit, we will check your child’s vision, get them to complete the updated version of CogniToT (Figure 1) and then ask you to fill-out a quick questionnaire about your child’s development. All the tests are painless and will not distress your child.

Figure 1: CogniTOT – An easy, screen-based assessment of how your child thinks and learns.

Why is this study being done?

We hope to gain information on how healthy children perform on the updated CogniTOT test and help us to improve the test design.

What are the benefits and risks of participating in this study?

• Help improve the design and advance child-friendly technology in healthcare
• If we have concerns about your child’s vision or development, we will arrange referrals to appropriate services if necessary

What will happen to the results of this study?

The results of this study will be published in academic journals and presented at conferences. Your child will never be identified individually during these presentations or in any reports or publications. Your child will be given a unique study ID code when they start the study, so all information is linked only to this unique ID, keeping your child’ data anonymised and confidential.

UCC is sponsoring this study, and they will ensure that we are following the highest standards of security and confidentiality regarding data, and comply with Irish and European Data Protection legislation.

Where can I get more information?

If you have any further questions regarding this study, please contact Dr Matilda Biba: mbiba@ucc.ie

Interested in taking part in the study?

Fill out the enquiry form here: https://forms.office.com/e/ZzAkScCcDG and a member of the research team will contact you.

The INFANT Research Centre at University College Cork (UCC) hosted a Family Fun Science Fair on Saturday, 9th August 2025 at Fota Wildlife Park’s Education, Conservation and Research Centre (ECRC) which welcomed over 530 visitors across the day including children with CP, their families, carers, and the general public attending Fota Wildlife Park on the day.

The event was filled with fun, discovery, creativity, and education, with a special focus on Cerebral Palsy (CP) research from the ELEVATE Research Programme.

ELEVATE, led by INFANT at UCC is a five-year research programme that aims to improve the prevention, detection and treatment of early brain injury and cerebral palsy (CP) in Ireland. CP is the most common lifelong physical disability, it is a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. It is caused by abnormal development or damage to parts of the brain. The severity of CP and the extent of the symptoms depend on both the extent of the damage or abnormalities and where they occur in the brain.

ELEVATE has been funded under the Research Ireland Strategic Partnership Programme, with co-funding partner The Cerebral Palsy Foundation (CPF). INFANT, UCC is partnered with RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and all the tertiary-level maternity hospitals in Ireland.

The science fair gave families the opportunity to meet researchers, connect with others in the CP community, and learn more about the work being done through the ELEVATE Programme.

A Day Where Science Meets Exploration

From the moment the doors opened at 12pm, the ECRC was buzzing with excitement. Families took part in hands-on demonstrations and inclusive interactive exhibits, including:

🧬 CP Research & Awareness Zone – Showcasing ELEVATE research studies, sharing progress to date, and looking ahead to what’s next. Visitors enjoyed bite-sized talks from project leads explaining the background to the research and an overview of the programme. They also heard a powerful perspective from a parent of a child with CP, who is an active member of INFANT’s CP-focused Parent Advisory Group (CP PAG), highlighting the importance of lived experience in shaping research to improve outcomes.

🐾 Meet the Wild Scientists – Researchers involved in ELEVATE from UCC, TCD, and RCSI chatted to families about their work. The team included project and work package leads, PhD students, nurses, neurophysiologists, data scientists, engineers, physiotherapists, research fellows, research support staff, and others!

🤖 AI & the Brain – Our neurophysiologist demonstrated brain monitoring by analysing his own brain activity live on a portable EEG machine, highlighting our work in newborn brain monitoring. Visitors also enjoyed an interactive AI game where both they and a computer guessed animals based on various clues.

👀 Vision & Eye Monitoring Activities – Interactive games illustrated different visual experiences and how they can affect daily life.

🎨 Creative Learning Activities – Arts, crafts designed for all ages and areas to unwind took place in the chill out zone!

🧪 The Bloody Detective Workshop – Mini-sessions exploring what’s in your blood, why it’s important, and how it helps doctors make key medical decisions.

🧱 Bricks 4 Kidz Workshop – Bricks 4 Kidz hosted a hands-on STEM workshop using LEGO®, Technic, and Robotics to inspire building and problem-solving skills.

We were delighted to be joined by some of our collaborators including In4kids (HRB’s national children’s clinical trial network), Cork University Foundation (sharing giving opportunities to support research at UCC), and The Cerebral Palsy Foundation (co-funder of the ELEVATE Programme).This science fair forms part of ELEVATE’s Education and Public Engagement Programme.

“Events like this let us share our research in a way that’s fun, interactive, inclusive and accessible. It’s also a way for families to see the faces behind the research and for us to hear directly from the CP community. Engaging families throughout the research process has always been integral to our work at the INFANT Research Centre, and these events shows how important it really is.”

Prof. Geraldine Boylan, INFANT UCC Director

For more information on the ELEVATE programme, visit: https://www.infantcentre.ie/research/elevate/

Photography by Joleen Cronin

On this International Youth Day, In4kids, Ireland’s national paediatric clinical trials network, hosted at the INFANT Research Centre in  University College Cork,  is shining a light on the essential role that young people play in shaping the future of healthcare. Observed globally on August 12th, the day celebrates young people’s engagement as a driving force behind more inclusive, equitable, and forward-thinking communities—and, in the case of In4kids, more effective and patient-centred research.

A core part of this commitment is the National Young Persons’ Advisory Group (YPAG), an initiative co-developed by In4kids and the Children’s Health Ireland Clinical Research Centre (CHI-CRC), with support from the Health Research Board. The YPAG empowers young people aged 12–18 to contribute directly to the planning and design of paediatric clinical trials, research studies and healthcare innovation projects from across Ireland.

Through the YPAG, young people collaborate with clinicians and researchers to offer feedback that helps make studies more relevant, and reflective of young patients’ real-world experiences. Their insights help guide research that is not only scientifically robust but also shaped by those it aims to serve.

Elevating Young People’s Participation in Research

Since its launch in August 2024, the YPAG has grown into a vibrant and diverse group of over 30 members from all over the country. The group has met in person in Dublin and Cork and continues to hold regular online meetings, ensuring that young people from different regions and backgrounds have flexible, meaningful opportunities to engage.

YPAG members have contributed to several research projects already, in collaboration with hospitals, and academic partners nationwide. Whether reviewing study materials, advising on recruitment strategies, improving methodology or helping to shape project priorities, the group is actively improving how paediatric research is performed and implemented in Ireland and making it more relevant for children and young people.

Children must have the same access to high quality, evidence-based medication and health care services as adults

This principle lies at the heart of In4kids activities and the YPAG’s continued achievements and growth will ensure this becomes standard across the healthcare landscape. By involving young people at every stage of the research journey, In4kids alongside CHI-CRC, is building a more responsive clinical research environment where the needs and voices of children and adolescents are placed front and centre.

As we mark International Youth Day, In4kids celebrates the passion, insight, and leadership of these young contributors. Their involvement is helping to ensure that paediatric research in Ireland is more inclusive, impactful, and attuned to the needs of its youngest patients.

To learn more about the National YPAG or how to get involved, please contact in4kids@ucc.ie

Overview of the ENIGMA Study

Children diagnosed with Autism often experience mental health challenges such as anxiety, low mood, and depression but it’s not clear what triggers these challenges. The ENIGMA research study aims to understand how various factors like environment, diet, stress, and activity levels affect the mental health of autistic children. By examining these factors, the researchers hope to develop strategies and alert systems to support children and their families better when triggers occur.

Aim of the study:

‘ENIGMA’ is an acronym for ‘Environmental influence on mental illness via modifications of genomes and metabolomes in adolescents with Autism’

The aim of the study is to observe the daily lives of up to 400 autistic children aged 11-15 years across Europe. This study is funded by Horizon Europe, which is the research funding body of the European Union.

Who is it for? 

• Adolescents clinically diagnosed with Autism.
• Must be able to interact verbally.
• Willingness to attend all study visits and wear a provided skin patch for 3-5 days, every month, at home for 6 months.
• Access to and ability to operate a smartphone.

Exclusion Criteria

• Adolescents with severe motor impairments or schizophrenia.
• Complex medical conditions, as determined by the research psychologist.
• Intellectual disability and not attending mainstream school.

What’s Involved:

Baseline Visit

• Discussion of study overview.
• Eligibility confirmation.
• Obtain Consent and Assent.
• Completion of baseline demographic questionnaire.
• Receive download and login details for phone app.
• Receive a pack with the Vivalink wearable device (the skin patch), instructional videos, phone app instructions, and urine/stool collection kit.
• Instructions on what to complete before Visit 1 including questionnaires.

There will be five study visits (including the baseline visit) over a six-month period and may include:  

• Collection of stool and urine samples that were obtained at home (samples kits & instructions provided)
• Completion of assessments using various scales and tests.
• Checking physical measurements (e.g., Oral swab/blood pressure/height/weight).
• Checking multiple questionnaires were completed by parents/guardians (72 hrs prior to visits)

What will happen to the results of this study?

Results of this research study may be published in medical journals and presented at scientific meetings. Following completion of the study the anonymised data collected will be made available to researchers in an open access repository to aid future research work. However, your child will never be identified individually during these presentations/in this repository and will not be revealed in any reports or publications.

Where can I get more information?

If you have any further questions regarding this study, please contact the ENIGMA Research Team at ENIGMA@ucc.ie or (086) 143-6020

Conclusion

The study aims to deepen the researchers understanding of the factors influencing the mental health of autistic children. By involving families, conducting assessments and completing questionnaires, the study seeks to develop effective support systems for these children in the future.

The IMAGINE Study is a nationwide research study led by University College Cork.

Researchers at the INFANT Research Centre, University College Cork and University of Galway are looking for people of all ages who have been diagnosed with morphea to take part.

What is the IMAGINE Study? 

‘IMAGINE’ stands for ‘Imaging Morphea: Advancements for DiaGnosis and INtensive Evaluation’.

Morphea is a rare skin condition that can cause permanent scarring. Because it often appears subtle at first, it can be hard to diagnose and can be very difficult to monitor. It is important for doctors to know when the disease is active, so they can treat it early and help prevent long-term damage.

In order to better track activity, we are performing a research study to look at the blood vessels and inflammation in morphea skin compared to unaffected skin. We are inviting people of all ages with morphea to attend for an assessment and specialised imaging.

The study is being led by a team from:

• University College Cork – INFANT Research Centre
• Cork University Hospital
• South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital
• Galway University Hospital
• University of Galway
• Tallaght University Hospital

Who is it for? 

We are inviting adults and children living in Ireland who have been diagnosed with morphea by a consultant dermatologist or rheumatologist.

What do I need to do?

The study will take place in the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital, Cork University Hospital, Mayo University Hospital, University Hospital Galway and Tallaght University Hospital or their related clinical research facilities. You will be invited to attend the centre where you are currently a patient or the nearest centre to you.

During your visit:

1. Medical history and questionnaires

• • You’ll be asked about your skin and any treatments (if any) you have received for your morphea.
  • You’ll also be asked to complete questionnaires about how morphea has affected your quality of life.

2. Skin examination

• • A dermatology doctor will perform a clinical assessment, similar to a routine dermatology visit, to check whether your morphea is currently active.

3. Specialist Imaging

• • We will take pictures of your skin using 3 different types of cameras to look at the inflammation under the skin. Each camera probe is non-invasive, pain-free and there is no exposure to radiation.

4. Tape stripping:

• • A small piece of medical tape to your skin (like Sellotape) will be gently applied and removed from your skin to collect skin cells. This is also pain-free. We’ll compare the different inflammatory cells in the affected and unaffected skin.

Why is this study being done?

We hope this study will help us to:

• Understand morphea more clearly
• Improve how we monitor it
• Prevent long term skin damage and scarring

We also hope to raise awareness about morphea in Ireland and encourage more research in this area.

What are the benefits and risks of participating in this study?

Taking part in this study will provide valuable data on this rare condition. The results may help us to detect disease activity more accurately which may improve our understanding and impact the future treatment of this condition. Participating in this study will allow us to learn more about the Irish morphea patients and contribute to further research in this field. You may benefit from this, or it may be that people in the future may benefit.

We are not aware of any risks of taking part in this study. As this study is an observational study, we are collecting data only with no intervention. There will be no changes to your medical care and no changes to your medication. There are no risks to your health. All data collected will be strictly confidential.

What is the time commitment?

• The initial visit will take about 2 hours, depending on your skin involvement.
• You may be invited to return every 3 months for follow-up assessments, but this is completely optional.

What will happen to the results of this study?

The results of this study will be published in academic journals and presented at scientific meetings. You will never be identified individually during these presentations or any reports or publications. To ensure confidentiality, the data generated during this study is coded with a unique Study ID Number that will be allocated once you (or your child) is recruited to the study.

University College Cork (UCC) is the study’s Sponsor and will act as the data controller for this study. Any personal data which you provide to the University will be treated with the highest standards of security and confidentiality, in accordance with Irish and European Data Protection legislation.

Where can I get more information?

If you have any further questions regarding this study, please contact Dr Lisa Kiely: lisa.kiely@ucc.ie

Interested in taking part in the study?

Fill out the enquiry form and a member of the research team will contact you: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/zC04NGseKc 

On World Cerebral Palsy Day, October 6th, 2023, University College Cork (UCC) proudly announced the appointment of Professor Deirdre Murray as the Cerebral Palsy Foundation Chair in Early Brain Injury and Cerebral Palsy, marking the start of a transformative programme aimed at revolutionising cerebral palsy care in Ireland.

A UCC alumna, Professor Murray graduated in 1995 before completing paediatric training in Paediatric Intensive Care Medicine at Bristol Royal Hospital for Sick Children. Her journey continued as a Paediatric Intensive Care Fellow at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. In 2012, she was awarded the prestigious Health Research Board Clinician Scientist Award for the BiHiVE study, which focuses on discovering biomarkers for neonatal brain injury.

Fast forward to World Cerebral Palsy Day, October 6th, 2024: We sit down with Professor Murray to reflect on her first year as Chair and the progress made.

Can you tell us more about your role as Chair (and your other roles) and the key areas of research you’re currently focusing on?

I am a consultant paediatrician in Cork University Hospital and I am also the Professor of Paediatrics in University College Cork. This means that I have time for research and teaching. My research has always been focused on trying to find better ways to predict and detect early brain injury. One year ago I was lucky enough to be funded by the Cerebral Palsy Foundation(CPF) to take up the role of Chair in Early Brain Injury and Cerebral Palsy. This allows me to really focus on this area of research which is very exciting. I feel privileged to be allowed to work on the area that I am most passionate about as I believe that this will allow us to make major steps forward in the prediction, detection and treatment of Cerebral Palsy (CP).

Looking back on your first year, what are some of the key highlights, milestones, or breakthroughs that stand out?

Last summer myself and the team at the INFANT centre worked on a proposal to Science Foundation Ireland for a Strategic Partnership Programme of research in Cerebral Palsy. This was co-funded by the Cerebral Palsy Foundation. Soon after taking up the post in October last year we heard that the proposal was successful and that SFI had agreed to match the donation that we received from CPF to fund this very ambitious programme of research which we called the ELEVATE programme. Over the next 5 years the team at INFANT, and researchers in TCD and RCSI will work on improving our ability to predict, prevent, detect and treat early brain injury and cerebral palsy.

Another highlight was launching the programme in March 2024, in particular because as part of the launch we held a Townhall meeting here in Cork where we got to meet with many of the parents and families affected by CP. This always gives us motivation to keep going and work hard to try to solve problems for these families.

This research will have a profound impact on children and their families. Can you share how the work is already making a difference?

I am part of a team that is delivering an early detection pathway for high-risk infants. All high risk children born in the four largest maternity hospitals are now examined carefully before they go home from the Neonatal units, and again at 3 months, 9 months and 24 months of age. The aim is to dramatically reduce the age at which children are diagnosed with CP to less than 12 months and ideally 9 months. This will allow us to enroll these children in trials of very early focused interventions which we hope will improve long term mobility and outcome. We will be providing access to expert information and guidance and are currently developing educational materials for the families. We have a parent advisory group, built from all over Ireland with parents of children with CP who have kindly given up their time to help and have guided us every step of the way.

Last year I was invited to take part in a Global consortium called CP360. This alliance involves researchers and families from all over the world who are working together to improve care for people with CP. Within this consortium I am working as part of a group to develop a universal screener for cerebral palsy that can be scaled and used anywhere in the world. We hope that in the near future it will be possible for parents or caregivers to send short videos of their infants to a large and secure database which will anonymously and automatically identify those children at risk of CP to detect and diagnose the 1-2 per 1000 children who have CP as early as possible.

This will be a game-changer for early intervention.

What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced in this role?

It has to be time. We are so impatient to make progress, but the care for people with CP in Ireland is currently so fragmented that it is hard to know where to start. Our focus is on research from 0-3 years, in particular on prediction and early detection. We need to get this sorted first, and then build on that by building expertise in early intervention. Families are crying out for interventions for older children, but we have to focus on the area where we have expertise and do this one step at a time. That is hard and I wish every day that I could do more.

You work with a multidisciplinary team and collaborate with partners globally. How do these partnerships strengthen progress in early brain injury and cerebral palsy research?

As part of the ELEVATE programme we will work with collaborators in Sweden, Italy, USA as well as our co-investigators in Dublin. We have long established collaborations with many researchers all over the world, all with the focus of improving the care of the newborn brain and preventing, detecting and treating early brain injury. This helps us to ensure that our research is cutting edge and that we are bringing the latest methods and ideas back to our centre to keep pushing things forward to improve care.

How important is the input from patients and families, and how have you integrated their perspectives into the research over the past year?

It is integral. We are very aware that parents are the ones that know the most important research questions. Our Parent Advisory Group give their time to review all of our documents, our protocols and plans to ensure that the aims make sense for families.

They have also helped to guide us on our parent educational materials. We asked them “What do you wish someone had told you when you first received the diagnosis of CP for your child?” “What way would you have liked the material delivered to you and by who?” “What topics, how detailed, etc?”. This information is vital for us as we need to get this right.

Looking ahead, what are your key priorities for the coming year and beyond as you continue in this role?

I am working with the CPF and my colleagues in Dublin, Dr Jennifer Ryan and Prof Denise McDonald to bring attention to the needs of children and adults with CP in Ireland; pushing to try to develop clinical care pathways for the time beyond the first 3 years of life. The injury that causes CP occurs once but the ongoing difficulties faced by these children progress as they get older, and their needs often become greater.

Unfortunately, at the moment in Ireland the support needed for many of these steps is missing or fragmented and care depends on where you live and what the local team can offer. Access to high quality care should be equitable for all children no matter where they live. A national clinical programme of care for CP would help us move towards that goal.

In the INFANT centre we are building the ELEVATE team and hope to start recruiting infants to the study within the next few weeks. We are working with our Swedish collaborators to access large amounts of pregnancy and birth data from Sweden to develop automated risk algorithms using this data to identify babies most at risk of CP at the time of birth. We are looking at what proteins might be measurable in blood tests soon after birth to detect brain injury. We will also be looking at brain waves measured using EEG at 3-4 months of age to see what clues they can give us about brain insults and outcome.

Next we will be looking at better ways of assessing young children with brain injury to predict co-existing learning difficulties.  Standard ways of assessing children with brain injury are very difficult it they have visual problems, or movement difficulties. We are developing ways to work around this to give us a true picture of the child’s learning potential.

I am impatient to get started and looking forward to what the next four years will bring.

We would like to invite women from diverse backgrounds around Ireland, who have had a previous diagnosis of preeclampsia, to take part in one-to-one interviews with a researcher to understand their experiences of follow-up care after preeclampsia, and their preferences regarding future follow-up care.

What is the Study? 

This study aims to explore women’s awareness of the potential impacts of preeclampsia on long-term health outcomes, as well as investigating attitudes towards follow-up care after pregnancy. Women’s preferences regarding the structure, timing, and location of follow-up care after pregnancy will be explored through interviews with the research team.

The overall purpose of the research is to improve the long-term follow-up care of women affected by preeclampsia in Ireland. Should you choose to participate, you will be asked to take part in a one-to-one interview with a researcher. This interview will be recorded and is expected to take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Who is it for? 

Adult women of any age who live in the Republic of Ireland who have had preeclampsia more than one year ago. There is no limit on the number of times a participant may have had preeclampsia. We hope to include women from a broad range of locations around Ireland.

What do I need to do?

If you are interested in participating, please fill in the enquiry form below. The research team will contact you, and an interview will be arranged with you, either online or in-person depending on your preference. Interviews will be scheduled at a time which is convenient to you either during working hours, or in the evenings.

What are the benefits and risks of participating in this study?

The main benefits of participating include the following:

• You will have an opportunity to share your personal experience of preeclampsia, and any follow-up care you received.
• You will have an opportunity to express your preferences regarding follow-up from a patient’s perspective.
• You will have an opportunity to inform and shape future recommendations for follow-up care of women in Ireland.

The risks associated with this study are believed to be minimal. Due to the sensitive nature of this topic, one possible consideration is that women who have a history of preeclampsia may become upset when recalling their experience of preeclampsia. If you express concerns at any stage, you will be provided with information about available healthcare supports. Participation in interviews will be entirely voluntary and you will have the option to withdraw from the study at any time.

What is the time commitment?

Once-off interview online for about 30 minutes.

What will happen to the results of this study?

The results of this study will be published in academic journals and presented at scientific meetings. You will never be identified individually during these presentations or any reports or publications.

University College Cork (UCC) is the study’s Sponsor and will act as the data controller for this study. Any personal data which you provide to the University will be treated with the highest standards of security and confidentiality, in accordance with Irish and European Data Protection legislation.

Where can I get more information?

If you have any further questions regarding this study, please contact Dr Peter Barrett: peter.barrett@ucc.ie

Interested in taking part in the study?

Fill out the enquiry form and a member of the research team will contact you: https://forms.office.com/e/51wMPgMtH2