Profile: 

Anne has established an inter-disciplinary research group at GEMS with members from general practice, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, sociology, psychology and biostatistics.

Anne graduated with a B.A. (psychology and sociology) from University College Cork in 1992. She completed her M.A. (1995) and Ph.D (1998) in the Department of Health Promotion, NUI Galway. After working as a Research Fellow in University College London for two years (2000-2002), Anne returned to Ireland and held a Health Research Board Health Services Research Fellowship in the Department of General Practice, NUI Galway (2002-2004). She was Lecturer in Primary Care at the Department of General Practice NUI Galway (2004-2011).

Competitive Grants: 

Anne has a research income of €7 million euro for primary healthcare research and development projects since 2002.

Anne completed her role in March 2015 as Principal Investigator for a 2.9 million euro EU FP7 project REsearch into implementation Strategies to support patients of different ORigins and language background in a variety of European primary care settings - RESTORE and she is working on international dissemination of RESTORE findings to academic and policy audiences.

Anne was Principal Investigator (2010-2014) for Health Research Board Research Award (210,000 euro) called Towards a Framework for Implementation of User Involvement in Primary Healthcare – FUSION

She is Principal Investigator (2014-2107) for a Health Research Board Research Award (333,000) for a project about Primary Care Teams and their implementation in the Health Service Executive.

Anne is Co-Principal Investigator with Dr. Austin O’ Carroll for the Partnership for Health Equity

Partnership For Health Equity: 

Acronym: PHE

Start Date: 2011

Principal Applicants: Professor Anne MacFarlane GEMS UL and Dr Austin O’Carroll, North Dublin City GP Training Programme

Collaborating Agencies: UL GEMS, North Dublin City GP Training Programme & HSE Social Inclusion (Ms Diane Nurse, Mr Tony Quilty, Mr Maurice Hoare) & Primary Care Services (Ms Alice McGinley)

UL Personnel

Prof Anne MacFarlane (Limerick office)

Dr Patrick O'Donnell (Limerick office)

Dr Fiona O'Reilly (Dublin office)

Ms Suzanne Barror (Dublin office)

​Summary:

The Partnership for Health Equity (PHE) is a unique collaboration of clinicians, medical educators, social scientists and healthcare policy makers and planners. The PHE is co-funded by University of Limerick, North Dublin City G.P Training Programme and the HSE’s Social Inclusion & Primary Care Services.

The aim of the PHE is to improve access to primary healthcare for marginalised groups, including homeless persons, drug users, travellers, migrants and others. To achieve this, the PHE is currently:

Working on education initiatives for medical students and trainee general practitioners on caring for these marginalised populations

Researching homelessness and its effects on health in Dublin and Limerick

Working with an existing general practice in Limerick to provide primary care for marginalised groups

Developing a GP low threshold service at two locations in Limerick City to gain an informed insight into policy and practice. These are located at the Ana Liffey Drug Project, The Fairgreen, Limerick and at the St Vincent DePaul Drop-in Centre, Hartstonge Street, Limerick.

Conducting an action research project on access to primary healthcare for marginalised groups within a primary care team/network setting in Limerick using participatory research techniques

Developing an information sharing website for those who provide primary healthcare to marginalised groups across the country

Disseminating information about and findings from PHE educational and research activities

There is no other collaboration of this kind in an Irish setting and it is anticipated that the research and educational outputs of this project and the wider work of the Partnership for Health Equity will have regional, national and international application and relevance.

Networking and dissemination activities for the PHE for 2014 are funded by the Irish Research Council New Foundations Award.

drugsandalcohol.ie Homelessness PDF.