Nicholas Mahony

Biography

I was educated at Batley Grammar School in Yorkshire and Portora Royal School Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh and then studied medicine in TCD in the 1980's. Following pre-registration house officer posts at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro and Royal Naval Hospital Plymouth, I served as a medical officer and completed my higher training in general practice in the Royal Navy. On leaving the Navy I mainly worked in Emergency Medicine until moving back to Ireland to undertake an MSc in Sports Medicine under the tutelage of Professor Moira O'Brien in TCD in 1995. I held posts as demonstrator and temporary lecturer in Anatomy from 1996-1997, and in 1998 I was appointed Lecturer in Anatomy and also took over as course coordinator of the MSc Sports and Exercise Medicine programme and as Medical Officer to the Anatomy department's Human Performance Laboratory. My interest in sports and exercise stems from a former life as an Irish and British championship winning club rower in both sculls and sweep rowing and as a former Irish lightweight international. I coached TCD's college rowing team from 1996-1999 and again from 2003-2008 and was Irish International Rowing Team Doctor from 1998-2003, and Doctor to Ireland's International Kayaking team from 2003-2008. I remain an active and keen skier, windsurfer, flat-water marathon kayaker,swimmer, cyclist and runner. Clinically in academic sports medicine since 1998, I have provided a pre-participation medical screening and exercise testing and training prescription service for athletes from junior to elite international levels from a variety of endurance sports in the Human Performance Laboratory. I was an instructor and course director on AHA/IHF Advanced Cardiac Life Support courses for over 6 years and acted as a Medical Service Provider to the Irish Sports Council Elite Athletes Carding Scheme since 2001. In service to the Discipline of Anatomy I was Secretary and Chair of the Anatomical Committee of the Irish Medical Schools (ACIMS) from 2014-2016 and presently I am the secretary of the Dublin Anatomical Committee. I have played a key role in the development of Sports and Exercise Medicine in Ireland, in 2003 I was a founding fellow of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine (RCSI&RCPI), I have been a board member since 2011 and Chair of its Annual Scientific Conference Committee since 2012. In 2016 I was appointed Vice Dean of the FSEM and recently in conjunction with faculty colleagues I developed a Post CCST Higher Specialist Training programme in Sports and Exercise Medicine which was recently approved by the Medical Council and Minister for Health and is due to be rolled out in late 2017. Since 1998 I have supported research in TCD as a supervisor and as medical service provider to over 35 research projects in the MSc Sports and Exercise Medicine programme and when required provided medical cover and pre-participation screening for numerous other exercise related BSc, MSc and PhD projects in Physiology run in collaboration with the Human Performance Laboratory. I completed my own PhD in Bioengineering under the supervision of Prof David Taylor in 2013 and then as Head of Anatomy I have refocused the Discipline's primary research strategy towards tissue and animal models of spinal axonal regeneration in our new neuroscience research laboratory; and, in addition with colleagues in Physiology, TCIN and Bioengineering I am now embarking on a major collaborative project with UCLA involving neuro-electrical stimulation and robotic walking in the rehabilitation of spinal cord injury patients. Initially a single patient pilot study this major 'follow on' project currently undergoing HPRA approval, will have expanded patient numbers and external matched funding from Industry, Mark Pollock Trust and Irish Funding bodies and is due to commence in the CRF St James's hospital in late 2017.

Research Interest

Anatomy; Bioengineering and radiologic imaging; Biomechanics; Exercise physiology; Sports and Exercise Medicine; SPORTS INJURIES