Dara Byrne is Professor of Simulation Education in the School of Medicine at the University of Galway. She is also the Director of Simulation for the West Northwest Health Region. In September 2023 she was appointed the National Lead for Simulation for the Health Service Executive (HSE). She established the Irish Centre for Applied Patient Safety and Simulation (ICAPSS) in 2017. The ICAPSS supports evidence-based simulation education and training across the continuum of health professions education as well as running external courses for national training bodies and organisations; the ICAPSS is the only accredited simulation centre in Ireland and has been identified as an international centre for Excellence in Medical Education by AMEE in 2022 and holds an AMEE ASPIRE award for excellence in medical education.

AMEE ASPIRE to Excellence in Medical Education Award

Take a tour of the ICAPSS

Professor Byrne holds a fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and has medical and surgical education, quality improvement, and leadership qualifications. She is completing an MBA at the University of Galway. She is an advanced simulation educator and is accredited by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) and the Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare (ASPIH).

She holds a Fellowship from the International Association for health professions Educators (AMEE) and the Academy of Medical Educators (AoME).

The Irish Centre for Applied Patient Safety and Simulation combines evidence based simulation education and patient safety research areas.

Our research is focused on improving the quality and safety of patient care.Our research themes are:

Innovation in Medical Education and Practice: Our research under this theme focuses on the evaluation of modern and innovative medical education teaching methodologies. We carry out research that is about simulation (the focus is on the effectiveness of simulation-based education approaches), as well as research through simulation (the use of simulation as a tool to complete research on quality and patient safety).

Engaging Patients for Quality and Safety Improvement: Patients have unique insights into the quality and safety of care that may differ from that of healthcare providers. Patients `see aspects of care that may not be seen by healthcare workers (e.g. issues in transitions in care or upon discharge), or have different opinions on what quality of care may mean. Therefore, our research under this theme aims to capitalise on patients unique insights into quality of care to inform quality and safety improvement efforts.

Addressing Quality and Safety Across the Healthcare System: A systems approach is require to improve quality and safety in healthcare. A systems approach recognises that changes in an organisation require the consideration of a range of factors interacting at different levels: patientservice user; the work environment; individual healthcare worker; healthcare teams, organisation and management; and society, culture and regulatory influences. Our research under this theme considers the healthcare system when addressing quality and safety issues and to improve the quality of care.

Within these themes, I am particularly interested in:

Translational simulation (simulation for quality and safety goals)

Patient safety education and curricula

Competency-based education and training

EPAs

Sustainability and Health and Safety in Simulation

Strategy

Human factors and quality improvement in healthcare

Find out more about the ICAPSS research here

My medical education interests are many but they broadly lie in competency-based and interprofessional education and collaboration in health professions.

My teaching interests are in using simulation-based education (SBE) to educate and train all healthcare professionals across the continuum of health professions education (undergraduate, postgraduate, and lifelong learners) to improve patient safety and the quality of care.

I am interested in how to use simulation to achieve competencies and skills (technical and non-technical)and how to use it beyond education and training to take a human factors, quality improvement, or risk management approach.

I am interested in SBE as an educational intervention and a diagnostic tool; a systems-probing approach.

My other interests include using SBE to facilitate community engagement, interprofessional education and collaboration, and patient-centred care. I am interested in simulation modalities such as task training, team-based training and simulated participants. I am interested in the business end of simulation, health and safety, costing and procurement, costing, roles and responsibilities, sustainable simulation and running a simulation facility.