HRB Open Research Blog

HRB Open Research – leading the way

By Jack Nash

01 March 2022

Four years ago, the Health Research Board (HRB) launched its innovative publishing platform – HRB Open Research. In this blog, we share some of its highlights and trends from the past year and our thoughts on the importance of making research openly available.

Frailty

How can frailty impact access to health and social care services?

By Guest Author

24 November 2021

Age is not an accurate indicator of the health of older adults. It also doesn’t tell us much about an individual’s healthcare needs. Aisling O’Halloran and Roman Romero-Ortuno, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, discuss frailty. Improving our understanding of its effect on the health of older adults will lead to fairer allocation of health and social care in Ireland.

embedded patient-researchers can transform research and healthcare

Improving the quality of health research with patient-researchers

By Guest Author

10 November 2021

Embedded patient researchers can amplify the patient voice to transform research and healthcare. In this blog, patient researcher Robert Joyce talks about his involvement with a trial at National University of Ireland, Galway. Thanks to Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) the trail design was changed to better fit the needs of people living with multiple sclerosis.

Myalgic encephalomyelitis

It’s time to start listening to people with myalgic encephalomyelitis

By Guest Author

17 August 2021

For far too long, people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) have been routinely dismissed, ignored, or misdiagnosed by the medical profession. A new Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) driven research study, published on HRB Open Research, led by John Cullinan, Orla Ní Chomhraí, and Tom Kindlon sheds light on how this can impact those living with ME and their carers. It also has important implications for how we treat long COVID-19 patients.

Animal assisted intervention

‘Pawsitive’ influence – Do animals boost morale and help children recover in hospital?

By Guest Author

27 July 2021

A team of researchers from University College Dublin (UCD) are exploring how the human animal bond impacts children’s wellbeing in a children’s hospital. The Principal Investigator of this PhD study is Rachel Howe.
In this blog post, Rachel tell us more about AAI, the potential benefits of therapy animals for children and parents, and discusses the UCD group’s research project to determine where and why animal interventions take place. 

Time to SHINE – Research spotlight on Kate Frazer

By Guest Author

14 July 2021

In this post, Kate Frazer from University College Dublin, Ireland, shares how the HRB and their fellowships have helped transform her research career and tells us about her understanding of smoking behaviour and efforts to help stop smoking. Read the blog post to learn more about the project and why public and patient involvement is playing a pivotal role.