Dr. Vivienne Brady

The outcome of this project is to provide report informed by the national and international literature examining best practice in the care and service coordination/configuration for postnatal women up to one year postpartum to inform future midwifery led service development for postnatal women in the South East region of Ireland.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) account for 37% of all deaths in the EU, with a total of over 1.8 million deaths annually. CVD cost the EU 210 billion € per year, due to direct healthcare costs, productivity loss, and informal care by caregivers. Although heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, CVD is not adequately researched in women, more so in the 40-60 age group, even though evidence confirms that menopause render women more susceptible to CVD after menopause. As a result, CVD are under-diagnosed and under-treated in women in the 40-60 age group. General models for CVD risk scoring are applied, evidencing a lack of specific and tailored risk models, gender, or sex-specific risk factors, throughout their life cycle. In this context, there is an opportunity to design and refine national CVD plans and stratify the risk of CVD, following a population-based approach, between women from early stages for a personalised prevention and care, considering Big Data and AI capabilities applied to heterogenous data sources, including clinical, lifestyle, image and -omics. The objective of CARAMEL is to develop and validate a novel stratified approach for personalized CVD Risk Assessment and intervention model, enabled by a variety of data sources. CARAMEL, will deliver: i) Validated AI and statistical CVD-Risk Assessment models for women aged 40-60 years allowing to carry stratification strategies for the predictions of developing CVD in women aged 40-60years, tested in 6 international clinical sites; ii) A personalised CVD prevention model including a Clinical Decisions Support System and self-management ecosystem (app, personal coach and wearables for monitoring) empowering women and helping healthcare professionals in the management of CVD; iii) Clinical pathways and guidelines for EU CVD Prevention and Screening programmes integrating personalised prevention and management strategies; iv) Regulatory Roadmap for certification of the CVDRA models.

In March 2020, all CWIUH antenatal class services ceased in response to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and in line with HSE recommendations. The CWIUH parent education team has since designed and developed interactive online classes comprising video presentations, and a live discussion platform for women and their partners to interact in a virtual capacity with healthcare professionals. As part of our commitment to developing the programme of antenatal education offered by midwives, we are conducting an online survey to identify the antenatal education needs of primigravid women attending the CWIUH in the absence of face-to-face antenatal education classes.

According to UNHCR estimates, conflict, violence and other crises left a record 110 million people worldwide displaced from their homes by mid-2023, the highest number recorded since World War II (UNHCR, 2023). Refugee-thrive aims to contribute to a better understanding of the complexity of refugee resilience at the individual, interpersonal, organisational and community levels with a view to identifying mechanisms to enhance the integration of refugees in a way that is mutually beneficial to them and their host communities.