Harriet Wheelock / Friday 14 February 2020 Fellows Friday: Prof Risteárd Mulcahy and Dr Paddy Barrett It’s Fellows Friday! Each week we delve into the archives and spotlighting one of our Fellows from the past who helped to blaze a trail. We’ll also be looking to the future of medicine and profiling some of our current inspirational Fellows. For this week’s Fellows Friday we’re turning our attention to affairs of the heart and profiling two of our Fellows from the specialty of Cardiology, Dr Paddy Barrett and Prof Risteárd Mulcahy. Risteárd Mulcahy Risteárd Mulcahy (Picture by Bobby Studio) Prof Risteárd Mulcahy was born in Dublin in 1922, one of six children of Richard James Mulcahy, Fine Gael politician and Army general, and Mary Josephine ‘Min’ Mulcahy. Prof Mulcahy was educated at the Irish-speaking Coláiste Mhuire in Dublin and at the age of just 16 began to study medicine at University College Dublin. He qualified in 1945. Having trained in cardiology in London, Risteárd returned to Dublin as a junior cardiologist at St Vincent’s Hospital and set up in private practice. In 1960 he took over all cardiology cases at St Vincent’s and set up the coronary care unit there in 1966. Four years later he made the then controversial decision to ban smoking on all his wards. Risteárd was one of several senior Catholic medics who had not become a Member of RCPI because of a preserved Protestant bias in the College at the time. In 1972 the College passed By-law 22 which allowed them to hold a special membership exam to fast track these medics through to Fellowship. Risteárd recalled that in his Special Membership exam he was asked two questions; Which side of the body was the heart on? And, was smoking bad for you? Having passed his Membership exam he became a Fellow in 1973. Risteárd was president of the Irish Heart Foundation, the Irish Medical Association, the Irish Cardiac Society and the medical section of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland. He was a founding member of the Corrigan Club, which aimed to strengthen links between doctors in Northern Ireland and their colleagues in the Republic. He retired in 1988 but continued to work as a consultant at the Charlemont Clinic, Dublin until 2005. Outside medicine, he cycled, ran and played golf. He was a member of An Taisce, the Irish Tree Society and the Irish Doctors’ Environmental Association. As well as numerous books on medicine he published a biography of his father and an autobiography Memoirs of a medical maverick (Liberties Press, 2010). Prof Risteárd Mulcahy died in 1 July 2016, just before his 94th birthday. Dr Paddy Barrett Dr Paddy Barrett (Picture by Bobby Studio) Dr Paddy Barrett is a Consultant Cardiologist at the Blackrock Clinic, Dublin who originally hails from Galway. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 2019. In addition to his training in Ireland Dr Barrett has acquired extensive specialty cardiology training in world class medical centres in New York and California. Dr Barrett spent four years at The Scripps Translational Science Institute in California working alongside cardiologist Dr Eric Topol on the fields of cardiovascular genomics and medical innovation. In collaboration with NASA's Reduced Gravity Office, Dr Barrett flew several campaigns validating medical devices in the zero-gravity environment. This work was sponsored by NASA and forms part of their work to allow future astronauts to be medically monitored in the space environment. His research has focused on digital medicine technologies in healthcare, the physiology of microgravity during NASA parabolic flight campaigns and the biometric signatures of emotional states. Dr Barrett is the host of acclaimed podcast The Doctor Paradox, which focuses on the issue of physician burnout and he has been featured in many global publications including, Time Health, The New York Academy of Sciences, The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet. He is the recipient of multiple awards and regularly speakers at conferences around the world on how technology will influence the future of healthcare.