The University of Limerick, Graduate Entry Medical School, would like to welcome Professor Walter Cullen to its Faculty as Foundation Professor of General Practice. In this role, Professor Cullen has continued the work of the Graduate Entry Medical School in developing links with over fifty general practices in. This academic year, almost sixty students will spend 18-weeks on clinical placement in practices in Counties Limerick, Clare, Tipperary, Kerry, Cork and Waterford.

A native of Dublin’s northside, Professor Cullen is a graduate of UCD and the Eastern Regional Specialist GP Training Scheme, where he completed his GP Training in County Wicklow. Professor Cullen subsequently lectured at the School of Medicine and was appointed Fellow in Teaching & Academic Development in 2009. During this time, he worked as a general practitioner in Dublin’s South Inner City, and was appointed as a GMS Principal at the Coombe Healthcare Centre in 2001. In 2008, he was a ‘Visiting Academic’ at ‘Orygen’ Research Centre & the Department of General Practice, Melbourne University.

Professor Cullen’s research and clinical interests include: youth mental health, problem drug and alcohol use and helping students learn in general practice. He is principal investigator on two HRB-funded research projects – examining the role of primary care in screening for problem alcohol use among drug users and early intervention in youth mental health. In December 2010, work commences on a project to explore the role of primary care in addressing youth mental health in Limerick City and in Dublin’s South Inner City, in collaboration with two international centres of excellence in Melbourne and key stakeholder agencies regionally.

While at UCD, Professor Cullen led a team to establish a national network of teaching practices. This network now supports UCD’s new undergraduate curriculum which allows medical students to spend more time learning in the community. This experience will prepare Professor Cullen for his role at the UL Graduate Entry Medical School, he explains; “students in all medical schools in Ireland now spend more time in general practice has been an important  development in medical education – and one which is consistent with international best practice. It is all the more exciting then to work with colleagues in a medical school which provides students with such a sustained exposure to general practice. Our initial experience has indicated students find this both challenging and enjoyable and learn the importance of concepts such as continuity of care with this longer clinical placement. It has been a privilege to observe and work with such enthusiastic and committed GPs and such professional and mature students here at the UL Graduate Entry Medical School.”