Orla Hardiman

Orla Hardiman (BSc MB BCh BAO MD FRCPI FAAN) is an Irish consultant neurologist. She is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Neurological Sciences at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI),^[1] Clinical Professor of Neurology at the University of Dublin a Consultant Neurologist at the National Neuroscience Center of Ireland at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin.^[2] Hardiman has become a prominent advocate for neurological patients in Ireland, and for patients within the Irish health system generally. She is co-Founder of the Neurological Alliance of Ireland, and Doctors Alliance for Better Public Healthcare.^[3] Hardiman is a Council Member of the Irish Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and established the bi-annual Diaspora Meeting, a forum for Irish neurologists based overseas to present and discuss their research findings with neurologists working in Ireland.^[4]

Education and training

Undergraduate degree and early postgraduate training

Hardiman attended University College Dublin (UCD) as an undergraduate medical student. She completed an intercalated BSc in physiology in 1980 and received her medical degree in 1983.^[5]

After graduation from UCD, Hardiman undertook a one-year internship at St. Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin. From 1984 to 1986, she trained as a senior house officer in neurology and neuropathology at St. Lawrence’s Hospital, Dublin.

United States

In 1986, Hardiman began a three-year neurology residency under the Harvard Longwood Area Neurology Training Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Beth Israel Hospital^{[disambiguation needed ]} and Children’s Hospital Boston. In her final year, she became Chief Resident in Neurology, at Brigham and Women's Hospital. In 1989, she undertook a two-year Clinical and Research Fellowship in Neuromuscular Diseases under Dr. Robert H. Brown Jr. at the Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Return to Ireland

Upon completion of her fellowship, Hardiman took up a position as a Newman Scholar at the Department of Physiology in UCD. In 1992, Hardiman obtained her medical doctorate (MD) from UCD. She became a member of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1993 and became a fellow of the College in 2001.^[5] In 1993 she became director of the ALS and neuromuscular clinics at Beaumont Hospital. In 1994 she was appointed as a tenured lecturer at the UCD Department of Physiology. She took up her present position of consultant neurologist at Beaumont Hospital in 1996. She was Director of Neurology at Beaumont Hospital from 2000 to 2007, until she was appointed as a Health Research Board Clinican Scientist and Clinical Professor of Neurology at Trinity College Dublin (2007). Since 2004 she has been Senior Lecturer in Neurology at RCSI.

She is the only Irish-based fellow of the American Academy of Neurology.^[6]

Research

Hardiman is a Health Research Board clinician scientist.^[6] Her main research interests are amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (motor neurone disease) and related motor neuron degenerations, phenotype/genotype correlations, population genetics and clinical epidemiology.^[2] Along with RCSI research fellow Dr. Matt Greenway, Hardiman discovered angiogenin, a novel gene which may be responsible for motor neuron disease.^[7] The discovery led to the development of an international research programme with Harvard Medical School, institutes in the United Kingdom and researchers at RCSI.^[7]

Awards and honours

In 2004, Hardiman received the first Palatucci Advocacy Leader of the Year Award from the American Academy of Neurology.^[5] The selection committee commended her "tireless advocacy efforts on behalf of the neurology profession and patients" in Ireland.^[4] In 2009, she was awarded the Sheila Essey Award for ALS research by the American Academy of Neurology and the American ALS Association.^[8] She is the only Irish based neurologist to have received these awards from the American Academy of Neurology.

Patient advocacy

Hardiman has been an outspoken critic of clinics using stem cell therapy to treat neurological diseases, claiming it is "only at a very basic stage, even the animal experiments have not been proven", and comparing those offering the treatments to "19th century carpetbaggers".^[9][10]

In 2006, Hardiman told a Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children that the Health Service Executive was doing a "bad job" in treating people with chronic diseases who had to access emergency departments.^[11]

References

1. ^ http://www.rcsi.ie/researchdb/research_piprofile.jsp?uid=72&pip=cv
2. ^ ^{a b} http://www.dmmc.ie/research/staff_web.cfm?StaffNo=703
3. ^ http://www.iicn.ie/meetings/alliance_of_doctors_for_better_public_healthcare.469.475.html
4. ^ ^{a b} http://www.iicn.ie/news/american_academy_of_neurology_honours_dr_orla_hardiman.13.413.html
5. ^ ^{a b c} http://www.cneuro.co.cu/files/Congreso.%20Curriculum/Orla%20Hardiman/Orla%20Hardiman.doc
6. ^ ^{a b} http://www.tcd.ie/Neuroscience/people/Hardiman%20Orla.php
7. ^ ^{a b} http://www.irishhealth.com/index.html?level=4&id=6609
8. ^ http://www.aan.com/press/index.cfm?fuseaction=release.view&release=720
9. ^ http://www.independent.ie/health/ripoff-cell-cures-give-false-hope-say-doctors-126934.html
10. ^ http://www.independent.ie/health/sick-may-spend-thousands-with-no-benefit-95850.html
11. ^ http://www.independent.ie/health/3m-fund-to-hire-medical-experts-unspent-for-a-year-63557.html

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