Mary-Anne Ryan

Research Support Officer

Contact Details:

Email: maryanne.ryan@ucc.ie

Mary Anne is a Research Support Officer at INFANT, she is currently involved in the recruitment, coordinating follow up and data management for the Early Detection & Intervention for Cerebral Palsy in Ireland study (EDI-CP) – which aims to try and reduce the age of diagnosis of CP by assessing children in high risk out-patient clinics using specific clinical exams.

She is an experienced Paediatric and Neonatal Nurse with a strong academic background and extensive involvement in clinical and translational research, particularly focused on the newborn brain. Her professional interests lie at the intersection of neonatal care and neuroscience which was the focus of her PhD. She is committed to advancing knowledge in all areas of neonatal care with a specific focus on neuroprotection and neurodevelopmental outcome.

She has contributed to multidisciplinary research projects and clinical trials, and is passionate about integrating research findings into clinical practice. She has a keen interest in the use of artificial intelligence in the NICU and its potential to drive innovation and enhance newborn care.

Mary Anne has presented at many national and international conferences, conducted workshops and facilitated group discussion.

Career Profile

  • 2016-Present Research Support Officer, INFANT, UCC
  • 2017-2023 Registered PhD student, INFANT, UCC
  • 2016 An Introduction to the Ethics of Health Research, UCC
  • 2015 Nursing Management of Neonate UCC/CUMH
  • 2013-2015 MSc Health Care Ethics and Law, RCSI
  • 2007-2016 Midwife/ Neonatal nurse, Neonatal Unit, CUMH
  • 2002-2007 Practice Midwife, Private obstetric and Gynae practice, Cork Clinic
  • 2001-2001 MComm (Public Administration), Department of Government, UCC
  • 1996 – 1999 BSc Nursing (Hons) Dept of Nursing UCC
  • 1989 – 1993 Medical, surgical, midwifery, paediatric and neonatal clinical practice
  • 1988-1989 Registration in Midwifery, Australia
  • 1982-1986 Nurse registration; Integrated General and Paediatric Nursing (Hons.)

Professional Affiliations/activity

  • Member of Neonatal Nurses Association, UK. (NNA)
  • Member of Neonatal Brain Research Group (NBRG)
  • Member of the nursing task force – Newborn Brain society (NBS)
  • Committee member of the European Society of Paediatric Research (ESPR), (nurses and allied health professionals’ section)
  • Incoming nurse representative on the ESPR executive council (October 2025)
  • Committee member of the Newborn Brain Society (Communication and Networking)
  • Member of the University College Cork (UCC) Academic Council
  • AI–4-NICU active member, ongoing research study

Patient Public involvement (PPI)

  • Chair of the National Cerebral Palsy – Parent Advisory Group (PAG -CP)
  • Member of the National Executive steering committee developing and maintaining a young person’s advisory group (YPAG)

Research Interests:

  • Neuroprotection in the NICU
  • Sleep
  • The prognostic value of early EEG monitoring
  • AI in the NICU
  • All areas relating to Patient- Public involvement
  • All research in newborn and paediatric care including observation studies, quality insurance initiatives, clinical trials.

Conference presentations to date

  • Paediatric Academic Society (PAS), Baltimore, USA

Poster presentation:’ Issues of consent in Irish neonatal units. How do we compare to BAPM guidelines?’ (2017)

  • UCC Conference on nursing and child health.

Poster Presentation: ‘Consent practices in Irish neonatal units’. 2018

  • Irish Research Nurses Network (IRNN) Annual meeting

Oral presentation: ‘Consent, ethics and the law’

  • Joint European neonatal societies (JENS), Maastricht, Netherlands 2019 Oral Presentation: ‘Sleep disturbances in the NICU’
  • Paediatric Academic Society (PAS) Toronto, Canada

Poster Presentation: ’Nocturnal sleep architecture of preterm infants

  • Fetal Neonatal Neurology- Virtual 2021

Oral presentation: A nurse’s perspective on sleep in the NICU

  • Joint European Neonatal Society (JENS) 2021 September-

Oral presentation; ’Monitoring SLeep through EEg in Preterm infants – The SLEEPi study’

  • Neonatal Research Symposium, November 2021,

Poster presentation: Sleep organisation of moderate to late preterm infant. (Best post presentation award)

  • European Academy of Paediatric Societies (EAPS), Barcelona, October 2022 Oral presentations x 2

‘Developmental Outcome of the Moderate to Late Preterm infant’ /  ‘Sleep organisation of the Moderate to Late preterm infant’

  • Neonatal Research Symposium, Cork, November 2021

Oral Presentation; Comparing the developmental outcome of the Moderate to Late preterm infant to the term born infant.

  • Joint European neonatal societies (JENS), Rome September 2023.

‘The role of EEG in sleep protection in the NICU’ (Oral)

  • International Neonatal Research Conference (INAC) – ‘Sleep state organisation of Moderate to Late preterm infants in the NICU’ (Oral), Dublin 2023
  • International Newborn Brain Conference (INBBC) 2023 Fota Island, Cork

Invited speaker: Workshop title: ‘Monitoring and supporting neurodevelopment in the neonatal unit’

  • Joint European neonatal societies (JENS), Barcelona, September, 2023 (Invited speaker)

Title: ‘Sleep state organisation of the moderate to late preterm infants in the neonatal unit’

  • Neonatal Sleep Talks (NEST), Cambridge university October 2023 (Invited speaker)

Title:’ A quantitative analysis of quiet sleep of moderate to late preterm infants – implications for practice’

  • European Academy of Paediatric Societies, (EAPS) Vienna October 2024 (Invited speaker).

Title: ‘The start: Developmental outcomes are our priority of care.

  • International Neonatal Research Conference (INAC), Berlin 2024 (Invited speaker). ‘Sleep in the NICU’
  • Newborn Brain Society (NBS), San Diego, 2025 (Invited speaker) Workshop: ‘Neurodevelopmental care during therapeutic hypothermia in the NICU’
  • Newborn Brain Society (NBS), Naples, 2026 (Invited speaker) Workshop/ Small group discussion. ‘Neurodevelopmental care during therapeutic hypothermia in the NICU’

Publications to date

  • Ryan MA. (2017). Advocacy: ‘Defacto’ partner to neonatal nursing practice.Journal of Neonatal Nursing 23(1);5-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnn.2016.06.003
  • Ryan MA., Ryan CA., Dempsey E. (2017) Consent for routine neonatal procedures in Irish neonatal units. How do we compare with BAPM guidelines? Irish Medical Journal, 110 (6), 584.
  • Ryan MA, Mathieson S, Dempsey E, Boylan GB (2020) Nocturnal sleep architecture of moderate to late preterm infants. INFANT 16(5)
  • Wei L, Ventura S, Lowery M, Ryan MA, Mathieson S, Boylan GB, Mooney C. Random Forest-based Algorithm for Sleep Spindle Detection in Infant EEG. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2020 Jul;2020:58-61. doi: 10.1109/EMBC44109.2020.9176339. PMID: 33017930
  • Ryan, M. A., Mathieson, S., Dempsey, E., & Boylan, G. (2021). An Introduction to Neonatal EEG. The Journal of perinatal & neonatal nursing, 35(4), 369–376. https://doi.org/10.1097/JPN.0000000000000599
  • Garvey AA, O’Toole JM, Livingstone V, Walsh B, Moore M, Pavel AM, Panaite L, Ryan MA, Boylan GB, Murray DM, Dempsey EM. Evolution of early cerebral NIRS in hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy. Acta Paediatr. 2022 Oct;111(10):1870-1877. doi: 10.1111/apa.16493.
  • Soraia Ventura, Sean R Mathieson, John M O’Toole, Vicki Livingstone, Mary Anne Ryan, Geraldine B Boylan, Electroencephalographic sleep macrostructure and sleep spindles in early infancy, Sleep, Volume 45, Issue 1, January 2022, zsab262, https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsab262
  • Ryan MA J, Mathieson SR, Livingstone V, O’Sullivan MP, Dempsey EM, Boylan GB. Sleep state organisation of moderate to late preterm infants in the neonatal unit. Pediatr Res. 2023 Feb;93(3):595-603. doi: 10.1038/s41390-022-02319-x.
  • Ryan MA, Murray DM, Dempsey EM, Mathieson SR, Livingstone V, Boylan GB. Neurodevelopmental outcome of low-risk moderate to late preterm infants at 18 months. Front Pediatr. 2023 Nov 30;11:1256872. doi: 10.3389/fped.2023.1256872. PMID: 38098644; PMCID: PMC10720582.
  • de Groot ER, Ryan MA, Sam C, Verschuren O, Alderliesten T, Dudink J, van den Hoogen A. Evaluation of Sleep Practices and Knowledge in Neonatal Healthcare. Adv Neonatal Care. 2023 Dec 1;23(6):499-508. doi: 10.1097/ANC.0000000000001102.
  • Ryan MA J, Malhotra A. Electrographic monitoring for seizure detection in the neonatal unit: current status and future direction. Pediatr Res. 2024 Apr 29. doi: 10.1038/s41390-024-03207-2
  • Proceedings of the 15th International Newborn Brain Conference: Neonatal Neurocritical Care, seizures, and continuous aEEG and /or EEG monitoring: Fota Island, Cork, Ireland, February 28th – March 2nd 2024. Journal of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine17(3):S345-S392 3233/NPM-249003
  • Soraia Ventura, Mary Anne Ryan, Sean R Mathieson, John M O’Toole, Vicki Livingstone, Geraldine B Boylan The effect of moderate to late preterm birth on EEG sleep markers of development in early infancy. (Clinical Neurophysiology – under review)
  • de Groot ER, van den Hoogen A, Ryan MA J, L’Hoir MP, Kanits F, Sierksma NE, van der Schoor SRD, Quante M, Gliniak C, Dudink J. Sleep for infants after discharge from a neonatal ward: Expert- and parent endorsed strategies. Pediatr Res. 2025 Jan 18. doi: 10.1038/s41390-025-03811-w. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39824944.
  • EEG in moderate to late preterm infants and its association with neurodevelopment – an observational study. Journal of Paediatrics accepted