President: Dr Silke Ryan (2021-2024)
Dr Silke Ryan is a Consultant in Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at St. Vincent’s University Hospital Dublin and Associate Professor at University College Dublin and Principal Investigator at the Conway Institute, UCD. She graduated in medicine from the University of Jena, Germany in 1998, received her MD by thesis in 1999 and was awarded her PhD degree from UCD in 2006. Dr Ryan has a special interest in respiratory sleep disorders and non-invasive ventilation. Her research focuses on the broad subject of cardiovascular disease mechanisms of obstructive sleep apnoea and in particular, inflammatory responses to intermittent hypoxia.
Her research has been published widely with over 80 original manuscripts in prestigious journals such as Circulation, the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and the European Respiratory Journal and her achievements to date have been recognized by numerous invitations to speak at international conferences and by receiving multiple international awards. These include the highly prestigious James Skatrud New Investigator Award from the American Thoracic Society in 2012 and the Cournand Lecturer Award from the European Respiratory Society in 2015, the latter recognizing the most successful young European young investigator in the whole field of pulmonary medicine.
Secretary: Dr Brian Kent (2021-2024)
- Niall Smyth (Treasurer)
- Patricia Boyle (Treasurer)
- Aisling McGowan (IICMS Representative)
- Dr Sheila Javadpour
- Dr Eddie Moloney
President: Dr Brian Kent
(2024-2027)
Dr Kent is a consultant respiratory and sleep physician. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, he completed specialist training in respiratory medicine in Dublin, before undertaking a three-year Health Research Board-funded Research Training Fellowship in Sleep Medicine.
Following this, he was appointed as a consultant in respiratory and sleep medicine in Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, London in 2013. Over the following six years, he helped build one of Europe’s largest multidisciplinary sleep services, and also established one of the largest severe asthma services in the UK, before returning to St James’s Hospital in 2019.
Dr Kent’s clinical practice encompasses the full range of physical sleep disorders, from obstructive sleep apnoea to parasomnia to narcolepsy, and the care of people with difficult and severe asthma, alongside other respiratory diseases.
Secretary: Dr Barry Kennedy
(2024-2027)
Dr Barry Kennedy is a respiratory and sleep medicine consultant at St James’s Hospital since 2015. Dr Kennedy graduated from University College Dublin in 2001.
His higher medical training took place at St James’s Hospital, Dublin, Mercy University Hospital, Cork and University Hospital Limerick. He was conferred with his Certificate of Satisfactory Completion of Specialist Training in general medicine in 2013 and in respiratory medicine in 2015.
Dr Kennedy attended Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, UK for sub-speciality training in intensive care medicine and sleep medicine/respiratory failure. He obtained his Certification in Sleep Medicine from the European Sleep and Research Society in 2017. His subspecialty interests include narcolepsy, respiratory failure, weaning from mechanical ventilation and bedside ultrasound.
Current research interests include the effect of different modalities of positive pressure ventilation on treatment outcomes in sleep apnoea and the use of bedside ultrasound for the identification of lung disease. Dr Kennedy recently wrote the European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology guidelines for the use of lung ultrasound during thoracentesis.
- Mark Traynor (Treasurer)
- Megan McGrane (Physiologist Representative)
- Dr Sheila Javadpour
- Dr Eddie Moloney