
Current team
Sinéad Hynes
Principal Investigator/Team leader
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Dr Sinéad Hynes is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Galway and a CORU-Registered Occupational Therapist. Her research career has been exclusively in patient-focused, rehabilitation and symptom management, particularly with people with multiple sclerosis. Public and patient involvement (PPI) is the cornerstone of her research and she is constantly challenged by the PPI contributors she works with. She completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge based at the MRC-Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, in 2013. From here worked in the NHS as an occupational therapist and trial manager before moving to Canada for a postdoc funded by the US MS Society. Following this, she took up her current lecturing post at the University of Galway in 2015. She is a Research Associate of Evidence Synthesis Ireland, a member of the Galway Neuroscience Centre and an MS Ireland representative on The European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) Council.
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CORU Registration number: OT021880
Robert Joyce
Robert has, over the last number of years, moved from being involved in the commercial world to becoming a Patient Advocate.
In 2019 he started as a part-time research assistant on the COB-MS trial, which led him to start training with EUPATI to be a Patient Expert. Since then he has shared his patient experience with the governmental agencies and pharmaceutical companies.
Over this time he has used his voice to share his experience on national radio and press, and developed online training programmes for managing anxiety, stress & depression for people with MS, and is working on a new programme for people with Progressive MS with the intent of increasing resilience.
Roberts blog www.a30minutelife.com is now ranked number 6 in the world for blogs focusing on Multiple Sclerosis.
Alice Mc Keon
Alice is a 3rd year Occupational Therapy Student at the University of Galway. To date, her placements have focused on community settings such as paediatric intellectual disabilities and rehabilitation for older adults.
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This summer, Alice is excited to undertake research with Evidence Synthesis Ireland under the supervision of Dr Sinéad Hynes & Ms Éle Quinn. Alice’s role in the project will focus on the People’s Review, an online project which aims to involve the public in a systematic review of a healthcare intervention. Specifically, she will interview members of The People's Review steering group over a period of 8 weeks.
Laura Bosner
Laura is a 2nd year Medical Student at the University of Galway. So far, her academic interests have centred around evidence-based medicine. She is particularly passionate about initiatives that make medical research more accessible and collaborative.
This summer, Laura is excited to undertake research with Evidence Synthesis Ireland under the supervision of Dr Sinéad Hynes and Ms Éle Quinn. Laura’s role in the project will focus on an online initiative with The People’s Review that involves the public in conducting a systematic review of a healthcare intervention. She will be involved in core review tasks including preparing the review protocol and supporting various behind-the-scenes elements of the project over an 8-week period.
Hazeema Haq
Hazeema is a first-year medical student at University College Cork. During her undergraduate studies at the University of Western Ontario, she conducted research on the psychobiology of eating disorders, the link between cardiovascular disease, dementia, and depression, as well as quality improvement initiatives aimed at improving healthcare access for marginalized communities.
Passionate about translational research, she is now beginning a project on neuropsychological interventions in multiple sclerosis (MS), where she will conduct a scoping review to better understand approaches to addressing cognitive challenges in MS.