James Foley

Dr James Foley is a Senior Lecturer in Emergency Medicine at the School of Medicine, University of Galway, and Consultant in Emergency Medicine at University Hospital Galway (UHG), where he is currently Clinical Lead for the Emergency Department. His post is the first academic appointment in Emergency Medicine at University of Galway.

Research. His current research focuses on artificial intelligence in emergency medicine, trauma epidemiology, farming injuries, and quality and safety in emergency medicine. He is undertaking an MD by research at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences examining the application of artificial intelligence to GP referrals and virtual triage in the emergency department. He is co-founder of the Irish Trainee Emergency Research Network (ITERN), which has delivered multiple multicentre studies across Irish Emergency Departments and mentored trainees nationally in study design, research governance, and knowledge translation. His published work includes studies on cycling-related major trauma in Ireland, end-of-life care in Irish EDs, and unscheduled care pathways. He was a Trauma Research Fellow at North Bristol NHS Trust (2022–2023), where he worked on the COMITED trial, a multicentre randomised controlled trial of conservative versus invasive management of traumatic pneumothorax. He is a member of the Major Trauma Audit (MTA) Committee at the National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA). He has secured competitive research funding from the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, the HSE Spark Initiative, and NHS Research Capability Funding, and is a peer reviewer for the Emergency Medicine Journal and Injury.

Professional Roles. He is a member of the Executive Committee and the Academic Committee of the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM). He serves as an independent member of the Data Monitoring Committee for the DEXACELL trial, an NIHR-funded multicentre randomised controlled trial of adjunctive dexamethasone for cellulitis and is a panelist on the European Respiratory Society (ERS) clinical practice guideline on non-spontaneous pneumothorax. He sits on a research studies panel for a PhD student in University College Dublin focussing on the burden on farming injuries in Ireland. 

Teaching. Dr Foley is currently the co-ordinator for final year medical students during their time in the Emergency Department and supervises many undergraduate research projects and has supervised two medical students to win the prestigious international RCEM Undergraduate Essay Prize (2024 and 2026).  He leads the pre-hospital trauma workshop in final year and actively contributes to the curriculum for 1^st and 3^rd year medical students. He is co-founder of the Galway Resuscitation Academy, co-director of the CRAIC course (Connemara Resuscitation Airway Course), an Educational Supervisor on the MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice at RCSI, and an instructor on the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS), Advanced Paediatric Life Support (APLS), and European Trauma Course (ETC) programmes.

Education & Qualifications.
MB BCh BAO, University College Dublin (2013)

FRCEM, Royal College of Emergency Medicine (2021)

MSc Sports & Exercise Medicine, University of Bath (2021)

Evidence Synthesis Ireland Fellowship (2021)

Professional Certificate in Medico-Legal Aspects of Healthcare, UCD (2022)

Certificate in Healthcare Management Practice, UCD (2024)

MD candidate, RCSI.