DrGeoff McCombe

Dr Geoff McCombe is currently a Research Scientist at UCD School of Medicine where he is the research lead on a programme of research on enhancing links between primary and secondary care.

Since 2016 Dr McCombe has been the lead researcher in establishing a primary care research group at UCD School of Medicine. His role in this group is to work with Professor Walter Cullen to develop interdisciplinary research initiatives and attract research funding to develop a programme of research on integrated care, mental health, substance use and related issues in primary care. To date this work has resulted in cross discipline and cross sectoral research projects on which Dr McCombe been lead researcher.

In 2020 Dr McCombe was the research lead in developing a practice-based research network (PBRN) at UCD School of Medicine in partnership with the Ireland East Hospital Group. The Ireland East / UCD GP Research Network (Ireland East / UCD GP Research Network) allows a strong focus on developing and evaluating new approaches to patient care, with integrated and multidisciplinary approaches to care at their core. The aim is to enhance patient care, treatment outcomes and therefore population health, by conducting multidisciplinary programmes of research in general practice and primary care to inform future service planning, and their subsequent delivery and evaluation. The Network provides access to a population of 1.5 million people attending general practice across Ireland and facilitates access to and utilisation of clinical data for research purposes, thereby enabling population health needs assessment and the evaluation of new initiatives.

Dr McCombe has considerable experience of lecturing and supervising undergraduate and postgraduate research students in a university environment. During his PhD studies at the University of Limerick he lectured at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and supervised students to successful completion of their theses at undergraduate and MSc level.
At UCD School of Medicine Dr McCombe has been the co-ordinator of the Primary Care Research Group’s SSRA (Summer Student Research Activity) programme since 2016 which has resulted in students achieving >20 peer reviewed publications and >36 research outputs at national and international conferences. Dr McCombe also supervises students and delivers methodological seminars on the MSc Primary Care (Orthopaedics & Musculoskeletal Medicine) and MSc Primary Care (Mental Health), and provides methodological support to GP lecturers and tutors in UCD School of Medicine.