RCSI is delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Tom Fahey as Professor and Head of the Department of Family Medicine and General Practice.

RCSI is delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Tom Fahey as Professor and Head of the Department of Family Medicine and General Practice, RCSI.

Professor Fahey succeeds Professor William Shannon who retired from the position last year and is currently head of the Department of General Practice in Penang Medical College (PMC), Malaysia.

A graduate of UCD, Professor Fahey joins RCSI from the University of Dundee where since 2002 he has served as Professor of Primary Care Medicine and Head of the Tayside Centre for General Practice in the Division of Community Health Sciences. During this time Professor Fahey also worked as a GP at Taybank Medical Practice in Dundee. Based in the inner city, Taybank Medical Practice is part of the undergraduate teaching practices network at Dundee University.

From 1995 to 2002 he worked as senior lecturer and GP in the Division of Primary Health Care at the University of Bristol, prior to which he was Senior Registrar and Honorary Lecturer at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the Radcliffe Infirmary Oxford, UK.

Professor Fahey qualified as a Member of the Royal College of General Pracitioners (MRCGP) in the UK in 1990. He returned to Ireland the following year where he successfully completed an MSc in Community Health at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and in 1994 became a Member of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine (MFPH). In 1996 he was awarded an MD by University College Dublin (UCD) and became a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners (FRCGP) in 2004.

A prolific researcher Professor Fahey’s interests reflect his dual training and accreditation in General Practice and Public Health/Epidemiology. He has a special interest in the application of epidemiological methods to clinical problems in primary care particularly relating to specific conditions such as cardiovascular disease, acute infectious diseases and diabetes. In 2005 he was appointed Research Director of the Scottish School of Primary Care (SSPC) where he was responsible for the strategic development of primary care research and the coordination of a national practice-based research network of 126 NHS general practices across Scotland.

His research portfolio includes over 100 articles and commentaries in numerous refereed journals of international repute. He is the author of six Cochrane reviews and has co-authored numerous book chapters as well as a book entitled High Blood Pressure at your Fingertips, which was highly commended at the 2004 British Medical Association (BMA)’s Medical Book Competition. Professor Fahey is a member of the editorial boards of Family Practice and the British Medical Journal.

The new RCSI Professor was awarded the John Fry Award by the RCGP in 2002.

Tom Fahey’s appointment means that he is just the second Professor of General Practice at the RCSI. His predecessor Professor William Shannon was the first person to ever hold a Chair in General Practice in the Republic of Ireland.

Commenting on his new role, Professor Fahey said: “I am looking forward to contributing to RCSI and Irish general practice, building on the excellent reputation of RCSI established by Professor Shannon.”