SEAN O'BREIN: Surgeon, sailor and teacher Prof Seán F. O'Beirn, who died in his native Galway recently, was highly committed to clinical research and the improvement of medical practice.
He co-authored a number of studies that advanced diagnostic technique and defined disease incidence and taught generations of students how to be doctors.
Born in Galway in 1914, Prof O'Beirn was a skilled surgeon who kept his interests both wide and varied. He was a keen sailor and served as the first president of the University College Galway sailing club. He was also chairman for a time of the Galway branch of An Taisce.
He graduated in medicine from UCG and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1940. He joined the army Medical Corps during the wartime emergency and while stationed at the Curragh he met his future wife, Rita Shiel. They enjoyed a long and happy marriage until her death in 1992.
On his return to civilian life he decided to hone his surgical skills by spending a period in the renowned Lahey Clinic in Boston. There he formed collaborations with local physicians and surgeons that would lead to future research initiatives. One was a study of skin cancer incidence completed in 1960 with Prof Urbach of Boston. They quantified the incidence of skin cancer in Irish immigrants in Australia as well as the rate of melanoma skin cancer in the general Irish population. His early hypothesis that there was an increased incidence in both cases was shown to be correct, findings that help inform us of the Irish population's increased genetic risk of skin cancers.
In 1987 he completed an investigation of "The Computer Aided Diagnosis of Jaundice" with Prof S. Lavelle of the Department of Experimental Medicine in UCG. The two collaborated on clinical studies over many years. The jaundice work was published in the Irish Journal of Medical Science and involved 1,000 cases of the disease.
This work was subsequently expanded into an EU funded study known as "The Euricterus Project", which included a sample of 13,000 cases of jaundice from across Europe. It examined the affect of various technologies in aiding the computer diagnosis of jaundice, the results of which were published in a book, Advances in Biomedical Engineering.
Prof O'Beirn held surgical appointments in Sligo and Castlerea before returning to Galway as Prof of Surgery at UCG and consultant surgeon to Galway Regional Hospital, the first full-time consultant in surgery at the hospital.
He had a great love of the Irish language and spoke as Gaeilge with his patients from Connemara and the Aran Islands. He wrote and published many poems, was past president of the Púcán Association, enjoyed golf, was a year-round swimmer and jogger.
Prof O'Beirn is survived by his daughters Geraldine and Mary Pat, his son Rory, son-in-law Brian O'Donnell, his daughters-in-law, Marion and Eniko and eight grandchildren.
Seán F. O'Beirn: born 1914, died September 21st, 2002.