Cork man is first recipient of sports-related concussion care fellowship

A new fellowship to develop sports-related concussion care in Ireland, in honour of the late US Ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney, has chosen Cork man and neurosurgeon Dr Philip O'Halloran as its first recipient.

Two universities, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland university of Medicine and Health Sciences (RCSI), have partnered on the fellowship to honour Rooney who died in 2017.

Speaking to The Irish Times, Dr O’Halloran said it was a “huge honour” to get the fellowship and it was “fantastic to join up with world leaders in sports medicine and concussion management.”

Education and awareness around concussions were a priority, as well as establishing an all-Ireland concussion registry for all sports.

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“First and foremost, we want to get the correct information out there to players, to parents, coaches and referees, as well as doctors and physiotherapists,” he said.

“One of the major goals is to set up an all-Ireland concussion registry so we can start to collect accurate data on how many are occurring in the country, and we want to really try to change how concussion is managed because each case is unique and treatment needs to be tailored specifically for the symptoms of different types of concussions.”

Rooney was famous in his native United States as the owner of the American football team the Pittsburgh Steelers, and in Ireland he was known as a philanthropist and as US ambassador from 2009 to 2012 under former president Barack Obama

Trans-Atlantic collaboration

The initial fellowship will last for two years. For the first six months, Dr O'Halloran will work at UPMC's sports medicine concussion programme in Pennsylvania, to develop baseline clinical knowledge of concussions, and study clinical research methods.

He will then return to Ireland and work with the RCSI school of physiotherapy and across the UPMC concussion network in Ireland.

Dr Philip O'Halloran, a graduate of University College Cork and RCSI, worked in neurosurgery before moving to Canada to take up a post as a clinical fellow in neuro oncology, and his most recent role was as a clinical fellow of neurotrauma surgery in the Royal London Hospital.

Chris Wurst, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission in the US Embassy in Ireland, said the late Dan Rooney's love of sports and Ireland was "legendary" and the fellowship was "very welcome".

Congratulating Dr O’Halloran as its first recipient, he said “I wish him well as he embarks on this fellowship ... It is wonderful to see the collaboration on both sides of the Atlantic to bring this to fruition.”

"UPMC is changing how healthcare is delivered in Ireland, and we are excited to use our extensive concussion treatment and testing experience in the US to assist and benefit communities across Ireland through the fellowship," said David Beirne, managing director of UPMC in Ireland.