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Staff Profiles

Mr Barry McDermott

BSc, BE, BVS

Contact Details


Translational Medical Device Lab,
2nd Floor Lambe Translational Research Facility,
University College Hospital,
Galway
T: -
E: b.mcdermott3@nuigalway.ie
Research Fellow
E: BARRYJAMES.MCDERMOTT@nuigalway.ie
 
researcher
 

Biography

Dr. Barry McDermott is a Senior Research Fellow in both the School of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, and School of Engineering at NUI Galway. Dr. McDermott holds a Ph.D. in Medical Device Engineering from NUI Galway, as well as three professional qualifications including a B.Sc. in Pharmacy (The University of Dublin, Trinity College), Veterinary Medicine (University College Dublin), and Electronic and Computer Engineering (NUI Galway).

As a result of this unique cross-disciplinary skillset Dr. McDermott works on multiple projects across the natural sciences, medical sciences and engineering. He has contributed to areas including medical imaging using electrical impedance tomography for stroke, computational modelling to assess the effect of surgery and exercise on osteoarthritis patients, ablation as a treatment for lung cancer, and the design and development of novel therapeutic hydrogels from conception through to pre-clinical testing. These projects have in addition to publications, resulted in a number of patents and help found medical device companies. In addition to these projects, Dr. McDermott also actively collaborates with a number of industry partners on the development of novel medical device and therapeutic technologies ranging from neurovascular devices to therapeutics designed for women’s health.

Dr. McDermott has won awards in each of his three professions, and has over 20 peer reviewed publications. Additionally he has won numerous international research and professional research awards, as well as being awarded scholarships to train and contribute at world-leading labs in areas such as biomechanics and neural engineering. Further recognition of his diverse skillset and expertise have come in the form of his appointment in 2020 as an Advisor to the European Commission in the field of Medical Devices and in-vitro diagnostic medical devices. 

His research is focussed on the interface between medical devices and therapeutics, at all stages from conception through to clinical testing.

Research Interests

Medical Device Engineering;
Drug and therapeutics design and delivery;
Pharmacology and Therapeutics;
Biomedical Engineering;
Computational Modelling;
Electronic and Computer Engineering;
Medical Device Design;
Veterinary Medicine;
Pharmaceutics.
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QdKWU90AAAAJ&hl=en
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4593-5331

Peer Reviewed Journals

  Year Publication
(2020) 'Multi-frequency symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography with machine learning for human stroke diagnosis'
McDermott, Barry James; Elahi, Adnan; Santorelli, Adam; O'Halloran, Martin; Avery James; Porter, Emily (2020) 'Multi-frequency symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography with machine learning for human stroke diagnosis'. Physiological Measurement, [DOI] [ARAN Link] [Details]
(2019) 'Gamma Band Light Stimulation in Human Case Studies: Groundwork for Potential Alzheimer's Disease Treatment'
Jones M;McDermott B;Oliveira BL;O'Brien A;Coogan D;Lang M;Moriarty N;Dowd E;Quinlan L;Mc Ginley B;Dunne E;Newell D;Porter E;Elahi MA;O' Halloran M;Shahzad A; (2019) 'Gamma Band Light Stimulation in Human Case Studies: Groundwork for Potential Alzheimer's Disease Treatment'. Journal Of Alzheimers Disease, [DOI] [ARAN Link] [Details]
(2019) 'Bi-Frequency Symmetry Difference EIT - Feasibility and Limitations of Application to Stroke Diagnosis'
Barry McDermott, Martin O'Halloran, James Avery, Emily Porter (2019) 'Bi-Frequency Symmetry Difference EIT - Feasibility and Limitations of Application to Stroke Diagnosis'. Ieee Journal Of Biomedical And Health Informatics, [DOI] [ARAN Link] [Details]
(2019) 'Bi-frequency symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography – a novel technique for perturbation detection in static scenes'
Barry McDermott, James Avery, Martin O'Halloran, Kirill Y Aristovich, Emily Porter (2019) 'Bi-frequency symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography – a novel technique for perturbation detection in static scenes'. Physiological Measurement, [DOI] [ARAN Link] [Details]
(2019) 'Feasibility of Water Content-Based Dielectric Characterisation of Biological Tissues using Mixture Models'
Robert Balduino, Barry McDermott, Emily Porter, Muhammad Adnan Elahi, Atif Shahzad, Martin O'Halloran, Marta Cavagnaro (2019) 'Feasibility of Water Content-Based Dielectric Characterisation of Biological Tissues using Mixture Models'. Ieee Transactions On Dielectrics And Electrical Insulation, 26 (1):187-193 [DOI] [ARAN Link] [Details]
(2018) 'Stable tissue-mimicking materials and an anatomically realistic, adjustable head phantom for electrical impedance tomography'
McDermott, B;McGinley, B;Krukiewicz, K;Divilly, B;Jones, M;Biggs, M;O'Halloran, M;Porter, E (2018) 'Stable tissue-mimicking materials and an anatomically realistic, adjustable head phantom for electrical impedance tomography'. Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express, 4 [DOI] [ARAN Link] [Details]
(2018) 'Symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography-a novel modality for anomaly detection'
McDermott, B;Porter, E;Jones, M;McGinley, B;O'Halloran, M (2018) 'Symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography-a novel modality for anomaly detection'. Physiological Measurement, 39 [DOI] [ARAN Link] [Details]
(2018) 'Brain haemorrhage detection using a SVM classifier with electrical impedance tomography measurement frames'
McDermott, B,O'Halloran, M,Porter, E,Santorelli, A (2018) 'Brain haemorrhage detection using a SVM classifier with electrical impedance tomography measurement frames'. Plos One, 13 [DOI] [Details]
(2018) 'Brain haemorrhage detection using a SVM classifier with electrical impedance tomography measurement frames'
McDermott, B;O'Halloran, M;Porter, E;Santorelli, A (2018) 'Brain haemorrhage detection using a SVM classifier with electrical impedance tomography measurement frames'. Plos One, 13 [DOI] [ARAN Link] [Details]
(2018) 'Gamma Band Neural Stimulation in Humans and the Promise of a New Modality to Prevent and Treat Alzheimer’s Disease'
Barry McDermott, Emily Porter, Diarmaid Hughes, Brian McGinley, Mark Lang, Martin O’Halloran and Marggie Jones (2018) 'Gamma Band Neural Stimulation in Humans and the Promise of a New Modality to Prevent and Treat Alzheimer’s Disease'. Journal Of Alzheimers Disease, :1-30 [DOI] [ARAN Link] [Details]
(2017) 'Anatomically and Dielectrically Realistic Microwave Head Phantom with Circulation and Reconfigurable Lesions'
Barry McDermott, Emily Porter, Adam Santorelli, Brendan Divilly, Liam Morris, Marggie Jones, Brian McGinley and Martin O’Halloran (2017) 'Anatomically and Dielectrically Realistic Microwave Head Phantom with Circulation and Reconfigurable Lesions'. Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, 78 (July):47-60 [DOI] [ARAN Link] [Details]
(2018) 'Symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography-a novel modality for anomaly detection'
McDermott, B,Porter, E,Jones, M,McGinley, B,O'Halloran, M (2018) 'Symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography-a novel modality for anomaly detection'. Physiological Measurement, 39 [DOI] [Details]
(2018) 'Stable tissue-mimicking materials and an anatomically realistic, adjustable head phantom for electrical impedance tomography'
McDermott, B,McGinley, B,Krukiewicz, K,Divilly, B,Jones, M,Biggs, M,O'Halloran, M,Porter, E (2018) 'Stable tissue-mimicking materials and an anatomically realistic, adjustable head phantom for electrical impedance tomography'. Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express, 4 [DOI] [Details]
(2018) 'Symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography-a novel modality for anomaly detection'
McDermott, B;Porter, E;Jones, M;McGinley, B;O'Halloran, M (2018) 'Symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography-a novel modality for anomaly detection'. Physiological Measurement, 39 [DOI] [Details]
(2019) 'Bi-frequency symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography-a novel technique for perturbation detection in static scenes'
McDermott, B,Avery, J,O'Halloran, M,Aristovich, K,Porter, E (2019) 'Bi-frequency symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography-a novel technique for perturbation detection in static scenes'. Physiological Measurement, 40 [DOI] [Details]
(2019) 'Gamma Band Light Stimulation in Human Case Studies: Groundwork for Potential Alzheimer's Disease Treatment'
Jones, M,McDermott, B,Oliveira, BL,O'Brien, A,Coogan, D,Lang, M,Moriarty, N,Dowd, E,Leo, QL,Mc Ginley, B,Dunne, E,Newell, D,Porter, E,Elahi, MA,O' Halloran, M,Shahzad, A (2019) 'Gamma Band Light Stimulation in Human Case Studies: Groundwork for Potential Alzheimer's Disease Treatment'. Journal Of Alzheimers Disease, 70 :171-185 [DOI] [Details]
(2020) 'Multi-frequency symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography with machine learning for human stroke diagnosis'
McDermott, B;Elahi, A;Santorelli, A;O'Halloran, M;Avery, J;Porter, E (2020) 'Multi-frequency symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography with machine learning for human stroke diagnosis'. Physiological Measurement, 41 [DOI] [Details]
(2020) 'Multi-frequency symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography with machine learning for human stroke diagnosis'
McDermott, B,Elahi, A,Santorelli, A,O'Halloran, M,Avery, J,Porter, E (2020) 'Multi-frequency symmetry difference electrical impedance tomography with machine learning for human stroke diagnosis'. Physiological Measurement, 41 [DOI] [Details]
(2018) 'Dielectric properties of bones for the monitoring of osteoporosis'
Amin, B; Elahi, M; Shahzad, A; Porter, E; McDermott, B; O'Halloran, M. (2018) 'Dielectric properties of bones for the monitoring of osteoporosis'. Medical And Biological Engineering And Computing, 57 (1):1-13 [DOI] [Details]

Conference Publications

  Year Publication
(2020) 2020 14th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP)
Bottiglieri, A; Dunne, E; McDermott, B; Cavagnaro, M; Porter, E; Farina, L. (2020) Monitoring Microwave Thermal Ablation using Electrical Impedance Tomography: an experimental feasibility study . In: 1 eds. 2020 14th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) Copenhagen, Denmark, , 15-MAR-20 - 20-MAR-20 [DOI] [Details]
(2020) 2020 14th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP)
Ištuk, N; McDermott, B; Porter, E; Santorelli, A; Soroush, A; O'Halloran, M; Joachimowicz, N; Roussel, H (2020) Detailed Dielectric Characterisation of the Heart and Great Vessels 2020 14th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) Copenhagen, Denmark, , 15-MAR-20 - 20-MAR-20 , pp.1-5 [DOI] [Details]
(2019) 2019 13TH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION (EUCAP)
Salahuddin, S;McDermott, B;Porter, E;O'Halloran, M;Elahi, MA;Shahzad, A (2019) An Empirical Dielectric Mixing Model for Biological Tissues 2019 13TH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION (EUCAP) [Details]
(2019) An Empirical Dielectric Mixing Model for Biological Tissues
Salahuddin, S,McDermott, B,Porter, E,O'Halloran, M,Elahi, MA,Shahzad, A, (2019) 2019 13TH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION (EUCAP) An Empirical Dielectric Mixing Model for Biological Tissues [Details]
(2019) 2019 13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP)
Salahuddin, S; McDermott, B; Porter, E; O'Halloran, M; Elahi, M; Shahzad, A. (2019) An Empirical Dielectric Mixing Model for Biological Tissues 2019 13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) Krakow, Poland, , 31-MAR-19 - 05-APR-19 , pp.1-5 [Details]

Reviews

  Year Publication
(2018) Gamma Band Neural Stimulation in Humans and the Promise of a New Modality to Prevent and Treat Alzheimer's Disease.
McDermott, B;Porter, E;Hughes, D;McGinley, B;Lang, M;O'Halloran, M;Jones, M (2018) Gamma Band Neural Stimulation in Humans and the Promise of a New Modality to Prevent and Treat Alzheimer's Disease. AMSTERDAM: Reviews [DOI] [Details]
(2019) Dielectric properties of bones for the monitoring of osteoporosis.
Amin, B;Elahi, MA;Shahzad, A;Porter, E;McDermott, B;O'Halloran, M (2019) Dielectric properties of bones for the monitoring of osteoporosis. HEIDELBERG: Reviews [DOI] [Details]

Honours and Awards

  Year Title Awarding Body
2020 Appointed Member of European Commission Expert Panel on medical devices and in-vitro diagnostic medical devices European Commission
2019 Ireland Canada University Foundation Dobbin Atlantic Scholarship Ireland Canada University Foundation
2018 Winner “Best Paper: EMF Dosimetry - in silico tools and measurements” at the 1st EMF-Med World Conference on Biomedical Applications of Electromagnetic Fields, Split, Croatia The COST Action EMF-Med committee
2018 Winner “Best Paper” at the 19th International Conference on the Biomedical Applications of Electrical Impedance Tomography, Edinburgh, UK The steering committee of the International Conference on the Biomedical Applications of Electrical Impedance Tomography
2016 David Gilmore Memorial Award for Best Final Year Student in Electronic and Computer Engineering School of Engineering NUI Galway
2016 MIDAS 3rd Level Project Competition Overall Winner The Industry Association for Microelectronics and Electronic Systems Design (MIDAS) in Ireland
2016 University Scholar NUI Galway
2016 James Hardiman Research Scholarship NUI Galway
2015 ON Semiconductor Scholarship ON Semiconductor
2015 University Scholar NUI Galway
2014 University Scholar NUI Galway
2009 Veterinary Council of Ireland Freeman Memorial Medal for outstanding academic performance in a range of fields including animal husbandry, pathology, microbiology, parasitology and pharmacology Veterinary Council of Ireland
2003 University of Dublin Gold Medal The University of Dublin, Trinity College
2003 Antigen Prize Winner for 1st place in Pharmaceutics & Pharmaceutical Technology The University of Dublin, Trinity College

Professional Associations

  Association Function From / To
European Commission Expert Panel on medical devices and in-vitro diagnostic medical devices Member and Advisor /
Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland Member /
Engineers Ireland Member /

Committees

  Committee Function From / To
Biomedical Applications of Electrical Impedance Tomography Steering Committee Member of the Steering Committee 01-JUL-19 /

Employment

  Employer Position From / To
Various Pharmacist 01-JAN-04 /
NUI Galway Senior Research Fellow and Adjunct Lecturer 01-SEP-19 /
Self Employed Medical Device Consultant 01-JAN-18 /

Education

  Year Institution Qualification Subject
2016 National University of Ireland Galway BE Electronic and Computer Engineering
2003 The University of Dublin, Trinity College B.Sc. Pharmacy
2009 University College Dublin MVB (DVM equivalent) Veterinary Medicine
2020 National University of Ireland Galway Ph.D. Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Languages

  Language
English

Consultancy

  Client Description
Various Medical Device Companies
• Consultancy on all aspects of medical device development, and development of clinical literature reviews for medical devices in compliance with clinical evaluation regulatory requirements such as MEDDEV.

Reviews

  Journal Role
Journal Of Alzheimers Disease Editoral Board

Other Activities

  Description

ORGANISATION OF SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS: Conference Organiser and Conference Chair: 21st International Conference on Biomedical Applications of Electrical Impedance Tomography. Scheduled for June 2021 in NUI Galway.

COMMISSIONS OF TRUST: • Member of European Commission Expert Panel on Medical Devices and in vitro diagnostic medical devices; • Member of interview panels within School of Medicine, NUI Galway; • Regular reviewer for peer reviewed journals including Brain, PIER (Progress in Electromagnetics Research), PLOS One, Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering; • Associate Editor of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease 2019.

INDUSTRY AND TRANSLATIONAL ACTIVITIES: Currently Technical Lead with Relevium Medical (2 IDFs submitted to date, being converted to patent). Consultant to a number of international MedTech companies and campus medical device start-ups

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH EXPERIENCE: Recipient of a large number of scholarships to train at, and contribute to world-leading labs in various areas including biomechanics, and neural engineering: 2020 - Pain Pathophysiology Lab (Prof. Katarzyna Starowicz) Institute of Pharmacology Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland; 2019 – Clinical Biomechanics and Rehabilitation Lab (Prof. Rebecca Moyer), Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; 2017 – UCL Centre for Nerve Engineering (Prof. David Holder), University College London, London, United Kingdom.

Teaching Interests

Pharmacology and Therapeutics;
Biomedical Engineering;
Computational Modelling;
Electronic and Computer Engineering;
Medical Device Design;
Veterinary Medicine;
Pharmaceutics.

Modules Taught

  Term/Year Module Title Module Code Subject / Desc
2020/ 2021 RF Technologies for Medical Devices EE5122 Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Internal Collaborators

  Name Description of Collaboration
David Finn
Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Martin O'Halloran
Professor of Medical Device Engineering