Assoc ProfessorDeclan O'Rourke

I have ongoing interests in teaching and hold honorary academic appointment as Associated Clinical Professor at UCD. I actively participate in Undergraduate clinical teaching, lectures, examinations as well as post graduate teaching and examinations for UCD medical students. I actively supervise and teach UCD medical students (as well as medical students from the other medical schools) on Paediatric Neurology rotations at Children's Health Ireland at Temple Street.

I take medical students on Summer Electives from all of the medical schools in Dublin and Cork including UCD.

I am currently supervising an MD Thesis through Trinity College Dublin where my MD student is examining the Prevalence of Paediatric Neuromuscular Disorders in Ireland.

I am currently supervising MD thesis on Quality of Life outcomes in Irish Children with SMA through the UCD school of Medicine.

I have successfully supervised MSc (Physiotherapist), a retrospective natural history study in Irish boys with DMD through the UCD school of Medicine. MSc has been awarded in 2022.

I received the RCSI Excellence in Clinical Teaching Awards’ 2023 as voted by RCSI students.

I am also involved in ad hoc journal reviewing: Journal of Child Neurology; Neuromuscular Disorders, Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology.

I was Clinical Tutor in the Diploma in Paediatrics ran by iHeed/RCPI from August 2021 to June 2022 and Nov 2022 to March 2023. This involved weekly online tutoring/lecturing to students on general paediatric topics following the course curriculum for 6 month blocks. The students were both national and international, some in GP training, some in postgraduate BST Paediatric training.

I have been invited to talk/lecture at multiple national and international meetings.

I organised and ran the All Ireland Paediatric Neuromuscular Virtual Study Day in October 2021. This was a national conference on Paediatric Neuromuscular Disorders targeted at clinicians and therapists involved in managing children with Neuromuscular Disorders. The conference was co-organised with colleagues from the Neuromuscular centre in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Belfast and was sponsored by PTC Therapeutics.

I have also given talks at multiple SpR training meetings for the RCPI to General Paediatric and Adult Neurology trainees.