Cystic Fibrosis Unit Officially Opens

Our Clinical Specialists

The Department of Respiratory Medicine at CUH is comprised of a team of Consultants, Nurses and Allied Health Professionals.

Dr Michael Henry MB MSc MD FRCP FRCPI

Consultant Respiratory Physician and Clinical Senior Lecturer.

Dr. Michael Henry sec 021-4921311

ILD queries-CNS 087-7570068/086-8228176

Areas of Interest:

COPD and pulmonary rehabilitation Lung Cancer, Interstitial Lung disease, asthma, pulmonary vasculitis and connective tissue disease

Professional History:

Dr Michael Henry (MB, BCH, BAO, University College Cork, 1989), MSc Healthcare Management Bath University 2004, MD University College Dublin 1998, Fellow Royal College of Physicians London 2005, Fellow of Royal College of Physicians of Ireland 2008.

Awarded MD by thesis 1998 for work investigating various inflammatory mechanisms in lung in patients with COPD, CF, sarcoidosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. He completed his training in respiratory and general internal medicine in Leeds 2001 and was appointed consultant and honorary senior lecturer, in respiratory medicine in Leeds General Infirmary and University of Leeds, 2006 with special interest in Interstitial Lung Disease before taking up his current position in Cork University Hospital in 2006.

He is current lead clinician for the department of respiratory medicine in CUH, recent chairman of the Division of Internal Medicine and recent member of the EMB (Executive Management Board) of CUH and lead for clinical governance in CUH. He is the recent national speciality director for respiratory speciality registrars training for the Royal College of Physician of Ireland RCPI..

He co-lead for the development of the rapid access lung cancer service for the Cork / Kerry region. He is lead for the interstitial lung disease service and runs the only connective disease / pulmonary clinic in Ireland with the dept of rheumatology in CUH and the national pulmonary hypertension service for Mater hospital, Dublin.

He leads the COPD service and has set up a pulmonary rehabilitation service in conjuction with PCCC colleagues in St Finbarr’s hospital. He provides bronchoscopy service in both CUH and Mallow General Hospital.

He is the author of 53 peer review publications, including international guidelines on the management of pneumothorax. His research interests include inflammatory mechanisms in pulmonary fibrosis including IPF and scleroderma lung disease, exercise in COPD and lung cancer.

Dr Marcus Kennedy, Consultant Respiratory Physician, Interventional Pulmonologist and Clinical Senior Lecturer.

Dr. Marcus Kennedy sec 021-4920169

Rapid Access Lung Cancer sec 021-4920453

Areas of Interest:

Bronchoscopy, Interventional Pulmonology, Lung Cancer, Chronic Airway Disease.

Professional History:

Dr. Marcus Kennedy is a Respiratory Consultant (Diseases of the lung) at CUH. He sees patients with all respiratory diseases including COPD, emphysema, bronchitis, chronic cough, asthma, smoking cessation, lung cancer, sleep apnea, chronic infection and lung fibrosis.

Dr. Kennedy (MB, BAO, BCH, University College Hospital Galway 1997) undertook postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and Respiratory in Galway and Cork 1997 - 2001 and was awarded an MD by thesis from NUIG in 2006. He completed Clinical Internal Medicine Residency at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (2001-2003), Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2003-2006) and Interventional Pulmonology Fellowship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Houston (2006-2007). He has USA board certification in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.

Dr. Kennedy was appointed Assistant Professor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock before taking up the position of Consultant Respiratory Physician and Senior Clinical Lecturer (NUIG) at Sligo General Hospital. He commenced worked as Consultant Respiratory Physician with special interest in Lung Cancer and Interventional Pulmonology at CUH in May 2010.

Dr. Kennedy is the co-lead physician at the rapid access lung cancer service as CUH and takes the lead role in the provision of specialised bronchoscopic techniques including Endobronchial Ultrasound Guided Bronchoscopic Biopsy (EBUS-TBNA), Brochoscopic Airway Tumor Debulking and Stent Placement and the treatment of Endobronchial bleeding for the Munster region.

He is the current national HSE-NCCP Lung Tumor Group chair person and also the Irish Thoracic Lung Cancer lead.

His research interests include chronic airway diseases including COPD and emphysema, muco-ciliary clearance, smoking cessation, lung cancer and bronchoscopic techniques such as endobronchial ultrasound, electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy in collaboration with UCC school of engineering (www.ucc.ie/en/biodesign) and chronic airway disease.

Dr. Kennedy has authored or co-authored over 40 peer-reviewed scientific papers (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/1l9myeqJult51/bibliography/48092715/public/?sort=date&direction=ascending) and book chapters (http://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=1LW5nKcAAAAJ&hl=en) and is on the editorial board of the “Advances in Therapy” medical journal and the World Association of Bronchoscopy and Interventional Pulmonology.

Dr Des Murphy, Consultant Respiratory Physician and Clinical Senior Lecturer.

Dr. Desmond Murphy sec 021-4234154

Asthma queries-CNS 087-4434858

Areas of Interest:

Asthma and chronic airway disease, non-invasive ventilation, pulmonary vascular disease, advanced lung disease and transplantation.

Professional History

Dr Murphy is the Clinical Lead for asthma, cardiopulmonary exercise testing and pulmonary hypertension in CUH. He is the co-lead for COPD. Other areas of specialist interest include advanced lung disease, non-invasive ventilation and lung cancer. He is on the Irish Thoracic Society Clinical advisory group to the HSE for both asthma and COPD. He is a member of the scientific advisory committee of the Asthma Society of Ireland. His research interests include airway and pulmonary vascular remodelling, and potential modulation of the pulmonary immune response. He currently supervises 2 PhD students examining the role of the airway microbiome and aspiration in severe asthma. He is a co-investigator on a HRB funded study examining the utility of a device monitoring inhaler technique and compliance in the management of asthma (INCA). Dr Murphy has authored or co-authored 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers and book chapters.

Professor Barry Plant MB, BMedSc, MD, FRCPI.

Consultant Respiratory Physician (CUH) and Professor, Dept. of Medicine (UCC)

Prof. Barry Plant sec 021-4922327

CF queries-CNS 087-2241824

Areas Of Interest:

General areas: Cough/COPD/Alpha 1 anti-trypsin deficiency/Asthma/ Smoking cessation

Sub-speciality areas: CF/ Non CF Bronchiectasis /Difficult Infection/ Exercise Induced Asthma/ Exercise in Elite athletes.

Professional History:

Professor Barry Plant MD, FRCPI is a consultant respiratory physician at the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Cork University Hospital, former Chairman of the Division of Internal Medicine CUH, a Professor, Dept. of Medicine, University College Cork, Clinical Lead for the smoke-free campus at CUH, Director of the E.L.D.R.G. (Extreme Lung Disease Research Group) and the Director of the Adult CF Centre at Cork University Hospital (CUH)-University College Cork (the second largest Cystic Fibrosis Center nationally). Professor Plant is also the current Chairman of the Medical and Scientific Council of CF Ireland, is an executive member of the CF Registry of Ireland and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.

He has diverse clinical commitments to Respiratory Medicine at Cork University Hospital in the following areas: General Respiratory Medicine, Cystic Fibrosis and Non- CF Bronchiectasis, COPD, Asthma/Exercise Induced Bronchoconstriction, Lung Fibrosis/Sarcoidosis, Orphan (rare) Lung disease, lung transplantation and exercise medicine. He is a Specialist Trainer in Respiratory Medicine for the RCPI.

A University College Cork medical graduate in 1996, he undertook his internship and senior house officer medical scheme at CUH/UCC before dual training in respiratory and general medicine in accordance with the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. During this training period Professor Plant was awarded a higher medical degree (M.D. by Thesis) by University College Dublin examining the Role of genes in inflammatory lung disease.

In 2004 he was awarded the National University of Ireland Traveling Studentship in Internal Medicine (one award nationally) to pursue further international training and subsequently undertook a fellowship in pulmonary and critical medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he remained until securing his current post in 2007. Since returning to Cork, Professor Plant has worked closely with CUH and philanthropy to develop new facilities to cater for the clinical and research needs of patients with severe lung disease, including the development of research laboratories, an Adult CF day centre and a recently opened State of the Art inpatient 22 bedded Respiratory Ward incorporating best practice with ‘next generational’ patient engagement technologies at Cork University Hospital campus.

Professor Plant heads up the E.L.D.R.G. (Extreme Lung Disease Research Group) at Cork University Hospital/ University College Cork. With the support of the HRB-CFR, UCC, the E.L.D.R.G’s mission statement is “Focusing on extreme clinical phenotypes will enhance our understanding of all phenotypes”. His research group focuses on translational Respiratory medicine including Cystic Fibrosis, COPD, Exercise Induced Asthma, Exercise in Elite athletes (ongoing collaboration with IRFU), Smoking cessation and the microbiome (lung and gut). Recently he was successfully awarded an FP7 award (6 million Euros over 3 years) from the EU commission, involving 12 partner sites across Europe and one in the USA. The project CFMATTERS (www.cfmatters.eu) will provide a randomised, multi-centre control trial of microbiome-derived antimicrobial treatments versus current empirical therapy.

Professor Plant is extensively published in international medical journals (including NEJM, Lancet Respir Med, Thorax, Chest, ERJ and AJRCCM) and textbooks in all areas of lung disease. He has been an invited speaker by many international societies including the American Thoracic Society, the Irish Thoracic Society, the European Respiratory Society, the Australasian CF Society, the European CF Society and the Food and Drug Administration USA.

Research and Academia

Professor Plant is the Director of the E.L.D.R.G. (Extreme Lung Disease Research Group) at Cork University Hospital/ University College Cork. With the support of the HRB-CFR, UCC, the E.L.D.R.G’s mission statement is “Focusing on extreme clinical phenotypes will enhance our understanding of all phenotypes”. Presently it has a number of active research streams including:

The microbiome: Professor Plant recently coordinated and was successfully awarded an FP7 award (6 million euros over 3 years) from the EU commission, to lead 12 partner sites across Europe and the USA. This project CFMATTERS (Cystic Fibrosis Microbiome-determined Antibiotic Therapy Trial in Exacerbations: Results Stratified) will provide a randomised multi-centre control trial of microbiome-derived antimicrobial treatments (next generation detection methods) versus current empirical therapy (standard hospital methods) for lung infection.

CFTR Modulation: Personalised medicine is gaining importance particularity in the area of lung disease. The CORK (Clinical Outcomes in Real-world Kalydeco) Study is presently examining the downstream consequences of ‘new’ personalised CFTR modulatory therapies in the area of Cystic Fibrosis.

Biomarkers of response to therapy in Lung disease: Currently the group is exploring the utility of different novel blood biomarkers for CF lung disease and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (in collaboration with Dr. Michael Henry, CUH). Equally the development of radiological imaging as a biomarker of response to treatment is on-going in collaboration with Professor Michael Maher, UCC.

Clinical Trials: The group participates in increasing numbers of clinical trials. To date a number of studies in the area of inhaled antibiotics and CFTR modulation therapies have been the primary focus. Recently Professor Plant assumed a Global PI role for the Next Generation CFTR Vertex Modulation Therapy Program.

Exercise in Elite athletes: In collaboration with Dr. Eanna Falvey/ Professor Michael Molloy and the IRFU the group continues to prospectively monitor immune and lung function in elite athletes during competition to understand the mechanism behind acute sepsis and exercise induced bronchospasm in this group of ‘healthy’ patients.

The Lung-Gut axis: The relationship between these two organs in health and disease is gaining importance with certain bacteria presaging the gut prior to the lung and the emergence of antibiotic related gastrointestinal diarrhoea post therapy for lung sepsis. In collaboration with the APC Microbiome Institute, Professor Fergus Shanahan and Teagasc. The group is gaining significant expertise in the area of Clostridium Difficile infection in CF, the CF gut microbiome and potential future role of probiotics in this cohort.