A Partnership for Better Care
INFANT Research Centre works closely with clinicians, midwives, researchers and staff at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) to improve outcomes for mothers and babies through research.
Many studies use information already collected as part of routine hospital care. This allows researchers to answer important healthcare questions while minimising any additional burden on patients and families.
Research Partners
The studies highlighted on this page are being conducted through collaboration between Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH), University College Cork (UCC) and INFANT Research Centre.
How Health Information Supports Research
The information recorded during pregnancy, labour, birth and newborn care can help researchers:
✅ Improve patient safety
✅ Better understand complications during pregnancy and birth
✅ Develop new healthcare technologies
✅ Support healthcare professionals in clinical decision-making
✅ Improve outcomes for mothers and babies
Research In Action
Your Privacy Matters
We recognise that health information is personal and that trust is essential.
When hospital information is used for research, it is handled under strict ethical, legal and governance requirements. Only authorised individuals can access approved information, and steps are taken to protect patient privacy at every stage of the research process.
Information used for research is carefully protected. Personal identifiers, such as names and addresses, are removed or replaced before information is shared for research. Research findings are reported in ways that do not identify individual patients.
Research projects are also subject to independent ethical review and governance processes to ensure information is used responsibly and securely.
Where available, patients may choose to opt out of having their information included in specific research studies. Information on opt-out processes is provided within individual study notices.
By using health information responsibly, researchers can improve understanding, develop new innovations and help improve outcomes for future mothers and babies.
For more information about data protection and health research, visit the HSE’s guidance on Data Protection and Research in Health and Social Care.
Can I ask for my data to be removed from a research study?
Where research uses information from hospital records without direct consent, individuals may have the right to request that their data be removed from a study before it has been fully anonymised.
If you believe your information may be included in a research study and you do not wish it to be used, please contact the study team using the contact details provided in the relevant study transparency notice above. The research team will explain whether your data are included in the study and whether deletion is possible.
Once data have been fully anonymised, it is no longer possible to identify individual records. At that point, data cannot be removed from the research dataset because researchers are no longer able to link the information back to any individual.