Edel Burton, School of Public Health, University College Cork

Project title: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on prehospital emergency care for stroke/transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs) and implications for future policy and service delivery.

Edel graduated with a First-Class Honours Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from UCC. She was awarded the UCC Quercus Taught Masters Academic Scholarship, graduating with a First-Class Honours Master of Pharmacy degree. Edel has gained clinical and research experience across multiple sectors. She has worked in both community and hospital settings and on multiple research projects, including the Horizon 2020 funded multi-centre OPERAM clinical trial. Edel’s research interests include chronic disease prevention, antimicrobial stewardship, and pharmacotherapy optimisation in the multimorbid ageing population. Edel also works as part of the ESPRIT (Evidence to Support Prevention, Implementation and Translation) research team, and was appointed to the HSE AMRIC Respiratory Tract Infection Primary Care Antimicrobial Guidelines Content Review Group in March 2021.

Primary supervisor: Dr. Claire Buckley, UCC; Co-supervisors: Prof. Patricia Kearney, Dr. Vera McCarthy (UCC)

Project Aim: To investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the provision of prehospital emergency care for stroke/TIA in Ireland and implications for future policy and service delivery.

Objectives:

Study 1: Systematic Review To review the international evidence on the impact of the COVID-19  pandemic on prehospital emergency care for stroke/TIA
Study 2: National Temporal Trends Study To compare ambulance times and emergency call volume for stroke/TIA in Ireland, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
Study 3: International Comparative Study To compare ambulance  times and emergency call volume for stroke/TIA in Ireland with other countries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
Study 4: Qualitative Study To explore the experiences of primary and secondary care multidisciplinary teams of prehospital emergency care for stroke/TIA before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland