Dr. Elaine Toomey

Faculty Of Education & Health Sciences

School Of Allied Health

Position: Lecturer in School of Allied Health

Email: elaine.c.toomey@ul.ie

Biography

Dr Elaine Toomey is a Lecturer in the School of Allied Health in the University of Limerick. She is also a Health Research Board 'Applying Research into Policy and Practice' Research Fellow. She is a Cochrane Ireland Research Associate and a member of both the Health Research Institute (University of Limerick) and the Health Behaviour Change Research Group (National University of Ireland Galway). Elaine is a Chartered Physiotherapist and obtained her PhD from University College Dublin (2016) and her MSc and BSc from the University of Limerick (2012, 2010). Until April 2020, Elaine was Associate Director of Cochrane Ireland within Evidence Synthesis Ireland and led the implementation of the Evidence Synthesis Ireland Fellowship Scheme. Previously, Elaine was a Health Research Board (HRB) Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement Post-doctoral Research Fellow (2016-2019), where she co-led the development of a complex behaviour change childhood obesity prevention intervention, with a specific focus on process and implementation outcomes. Elaine was a Visiting Researcher at Hunter New England Population Health Service/Newcastle University (Newcastle, Australia) in 2018, the Centre for Studies in Family Medicine in Western University (Ontario, Canada) in 2018, and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (Ontario, Canada) in 2017 and 2018.

Elaine's research has two main strands - 1) utilising health behaviour change for chronic disease prevention and management, and 2) enhancing the methods used for the implementation of health research into policy and practice. She has specific methodological expertise in evidence synthesis, implementation science/knowledge translation, process evaluation and fidelity/adaptation of behaviour change interventions. In 2016 Elaine was awarded a Leamer-Rosenthal Prize for Open Social Science for Emerging Researchers from the University of California Berkeley for her work in fidelity and transparency of behaviour change interventions. She is also a Catalyst for the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS), a member of the Health Research Board Open Research National Steering Committee and a keen advocate for open science. She is a recipient of the Irish Canadian University Foundation James M. Flaherty Early Career Scholarship (2017), the UK Society for Behavioural Medicine Early Career Award (2020), the European Health Psychology Stan Maes Early Career Award (2020) and a Euroscience European Young Researcher Award (EYRA) finalist (2020). She has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal publications as well as numerous blogposts and alternative research outputs and has secured over 3.7million in national and international research funding as Principal Investigator or co-applicant/collaborator.

Research Interests

Health behaviour change for chronic disease prevention and management.
Implementation science/knowledge translation and informed decision-making in health policy and practice.
Health research methods, e.g. evidence synthesis, fidelity and adaptation of complex behavioural interventions, process evaluations, and behavioural intervention development and evaluation.
Open science and health research transparency, stakeholder involvement and citizen science.

Professional Activities

Award

2020 - UK Society for Behavioural Medicine Early Career Award
2020 - Applying Research into Policy and Practice Fellowship (249,518.92)
2020 - European Health Psychology Society Stan Maes Early Career Award
2020 - European Young Researcher Award (finalist)
2017 - James M. Flaherty Early Career Research Award (7200)
2016 - Leamer-Rosenthal Emerging Researcher Prize for Open Social Science ($10,000)
2015 - Early Career Researcher Travel Award
2014 - Early Career Researcher Travel Award
2013 - Early Career Researcher Travel Award
2009 - HRB Summer Student Scholarship

Association

Member, Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists
Co-Chair, European Health Psychology Society Open Science Special Interest Group

Peer Reviewed Journals

2021

Fidelity of Interventions to Reduce or Prevent Stress and/or Anxiety from Pregnancy up to Two Years Postpartum: A Systematic Review.

Gorman G;Toomey E;Flannery C;Redsell S;Hayes C;Huizink A;Kearney PM;Matvienko-Sikar K; (2021) Fidelity of Interventions to Reduce or Prevent Stress and/or Anxiety from Pregnancy up to Two Years Postpartum: A Systematic Review.. Maternal And Child Health Journal

Biography

Research Interests

Professional Activities

Award

Association

Publications

Peer Reviewed Journals

Fidelity of Interventions to Reduce or Prevent Stress and/or Anxiety from Pregnancy up to Two Years Postpartum: A Systematic Review.

Enhancing the translation of health behaviour change research into practice: a selective conceptual review of the synergy between implementation science and health psychology.

Are questionable research practices facilitating new discoveries in sport and exercise medicine? The proportion of supported hypotheses is implausibly high.

Focusing on fidelity: narrative review and recommendations for improving intervention fidelity within trials of health behaviour change interventions

The Efficacy of Workplace Interventions on Improving the Dietary, Physical Activity and Sleep Behaviours of School and Childcare Staff: A Systematic Review.

A core outcome set for trials of infant-feeding interventions to prevent childhood obesity

Exploring factors that influence the practice of Open Science by early career health researchers: a mixed methods study.

Feasibility cluster randomised controlled trial evaluating a theory-driven group-based complex intervention versus usual physiotherapy to support self-management of osteoarthritis and low back pain (SOLAS).

A collaborative approach to developing sustainable behaviour change interventions for childhood obesity prevention: Development of the Choosing Healthy Eating for Infant Health (CHErIsH) intervention and implementation strategy

Developing an open educational resource for open research: Protocol for the PaPOR TRAIL project.

Investigating and evaluating evidence of the behavioural determinants of adherence to social distancing measures - A protocol for a scoping review of COVID-19 research.

Extended use or reuse of single-use surgical masks and filtering face-piece respirators during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: A rapid systematic review.

Promoting scientific integrity through open science in health psychology: results of the Synergy Expert Meeting of the European health psychology society.

Classification of aerosol-generating procedures: a rapid systematic review.

Personal protective equipment for preventing highly infectious diseases due to exposure to contaminated body fluids in healthcare staff.

Limited engagement with transparent and open science standards in the policies of pain journals: a cross-sectional evaluation.

Exploring healthcare professionals' views of the acceptability of delivering interventions to promote healthy infant feeding practices within primary care: a qualitative interview study.

The efficacy of PPE for COVID-19-type respiratory illnesses in primary and community care staff

Physician-reported barriers to using evidence-based recommendations for low back pain in clinical practice: a systematic review and synthesis of qualitative studies using the Theoretical Domains Framework.

The effectiveness of health professional-delivered interventions during the first 1000 days to prevent overweight/obesity in children: A systematic review

Barriers and enablers to screening and diagnosing depression and diabetes distress in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus; protocol of a qualitative evidence synthesis.

Behaviour change techniques and theory use in healthcare professional-delivered infant feeding interventions to prevent childhood obesity: a systematic review

Choosing Healthy Eating for Infant Health (CHErIsH) study: protocol for a feasibility study

Adapting health interventions for local fit when scaling-up: a realist review protocol.

Health professional-delivered obesity prevention interventions during the first 1,000 days: A systematic review of external validity reporting.

Implementation of a Calorie Menu Labeling Policy in Public Hospitals: Study Protocol for a Multiple Case Study

Using theatre as an arts-based knowledge translation strategy for health-related information: a scoping review protocol.

'Influence of providing information to participants about development of trial outcomes on response rates and attitudes to questionnaire completion: Protocol for a study within a trial'

Transparent and reproducible pain research: a critical review

Surveying knowledge, practice and attitudes toward intervention fidelity within trials of complex healthcare interventions

Adapting Health Interventions for Local Fit when Scaling-up: A Realist Review Protocol

Intervention Fidelity Within Trials of Infant Feeding Behavioral Interventions to Prevent Childhood Obesity: A Systematic Review

Addressing fidelity within complex health behaviour change interventions: A protocol of a scoping review of intervention fidelity frameworks and models

The CHARMS pilot study: A multi-method assessment of the feasibility of a sexual counselling implementation intervention in cardiac rehabilitation in Ireland

Developing a Core Outcome Set for Childhood Obesity Prevention: A Systematic Review

Do mothers accurately identify their child�s overweight/obesity status during early childhood? Evidence from a nationally representative cohort study

Effects of healthcare professional delivered early feeding interventions on feeding practices and dietary intake: A systematic review

Parental experiences and perceptions of infant complementary feeding: A qualitative evidence synthesis

Development of an infant feeding core outcome set for childhood obesity interventions: study protocol

Using mixed methods to assess fidelity of delivery and its influencing factors in a complex self-management intervention for people with osteoarthritis and low back pain

Behaviour change and self-management interventions in persistent low back pain

Addressing Intervention Fidelity Within Physical Therapy Research and Clinical Practice

Augmenting home exercise programmes in multiple sclerosis with �exercise buddies�: A pilot study

Using intervention mapping to develop a theory-driven, group-based complex intervention to support self-management of osteoarthritis and low back pain (SOLAS).

Sexual counselling for patients with cardiovascular disease: protocol for a pilot study of the CHARMS sexual counselling intervention

Development of a Feasible Implementation Fidelity Protocol Within a Complex Physical Therapy-Led Self-Management Intervention.

Sexual counselling for patients with cardiovascular disease: protocol for a pilot study of the CHARMS sexual counselling intervention

Sexual counselling for patients with cardiovascular disease: protocol for a pilot study of the CHARMS sexual counselling intervention.

Implementation fidelity of physiotherapist-delivered group education and exercise interventions to promote self-management in people with osteoarthritis and chronic low back pain: a rapid review part II.

The effectiveness of physiotherapist-delivered group education and exercise interventions to promote self-management for people with osteoarthritis and chronic low back pain: a rapid review part I.

Exploring the use of �Exercise Buddies� to augment physiotherapy in the community for people with Multiple Sclerosis

Between-rater reliability of the 6-minute walk test, berg balance scale, and handheld dynamometry in people with multiple sclerosis.

Physical rehabilitation interventions in nonambulatory people with multiple sclerosis: a systematic review.

Books

Book Chapters

Edited Books

Other Journals

Conference Publications

Psychology, Health and Medicine

The Society for Back Pain Research Conference

OARSI World Congress on Osteoarthritis

The Society for Back Pain Research Conference

29th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis, 18th Annual Conference of Rehabilitation in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS)

17th Annual Rehabilitation in Multiple Sclerosis (RIMS) Conference,

Conference Contributions

Published Reports

Editorials

Book Reviews

Other Publications