Who are we?
The PALM Society (PALMSoc) is a collection of interested scientists, biochemists, nurses, doctors, medical laboratory aides, phlebotomists, administrative staff, etc. from all health disciplines.
The members of the Steering Committee include:
Dr Ann Leonard
(TUH)
Dr Gerard Boran
(TUH)
Professor Patrick Toomey (SVUH)
Dr Rama Srinivasan
(Black Rock Clinic)
Dr Mary Keogan
(Beaumont)
Ms Felicity Dempsey
(POCT Consultancy)
and the PALMSoc Representatives.
The idea for the society developed from the inaugural PALM Study day in September 2018.
Dr Ann Leonard (TUH)
Dr Ann Leonard is Chief Medical Scientist at Tallaght University Hospital. Her current role is Quality Innovator in the Laboratory Medicine department and has a BSc and PhD from Trinity College Dublin and a MSc in Business Management from Smurfit Business School. She is currently course co-ordinator for the MSc in Clinical Chemistry at TCD. Ann has a keen interest in research and is currently working on CELTIC Ranges (Comprehensive and Effective Laboratory Test Reference Intervals for Irish Children: the CELTIC Ranges Project) and ‘Antibody status to COVID-19 in a group of healthcare workers’ projects. She has a keen interest in extra analytical phases of total testing process and is one of the founding members of the PALMSoc.
Dr Gerard Boran (TUH)
Gerard Boran is head of Clinical Chemistry and Consultant Chemical Pathologist at Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) and is a Clinical Professor in the TCD Department of Clinical Medicine at TUH. Current research includes the CELTIC Ranges Project (supported by the National Childrens Hospital Foundation) and FerrTest (supported by Enterprise Ireland/Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund) and he has also held research grants from the HRB and European Commission. Dr. Boran is also course director for the internationally-accredited TCD MSc in Clinical Chemistry, is an Associate Editor of the Irish Journal of Medical Science, and has over 100 publications in laboratory medicine.
Professor Patrick Twomey (SVUH)
Consultant Advisory on pre-analytic phase
Professor Patrick Twomey is consultant chemical pathologist in St. Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin, the Laboratory Director for Clinical Chemistry within the St Vincent’s Hospital Group and Clinical Professor in the School of Medicine, University College Dublin. He obtained an Intercalated BSc in Biochemistry from University College Cork before being awarded his Medical degree. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, the Faculty of Pathology at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and of the Royal College of Pathologists where he also is an examiner. He is the President of the Board of Laboratory Medicine within the UEMS (European Union Medical Specialists), National Speciality Director Chemical Pathology, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and Honorary Treasurer of the Association of Clinical Pathologists. He has co-authored one text book, several book chapters and over 100 original publications in the fields of clinical biochemistry, metabolic medicine, lipids and nutrition. He is the Best Practice Editor of the Journal of Clinical Pathology and is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Pathology, the British Medical Journal Case Reports and the Clinical Biochemistry journal. He was previously the Vice Chair of the UK Joint Working Group on Quality Assessment in Pathology and past Chair of the Chemical Pathology National Quality Assurance Advisory Panel within the Royal College of Pathologists - currently he sits on the DEQAS advisory panel and the WEQAS Steering Committee.
About the Members
Dr Rama Srinivasan (Black Rock Clinic)
Dr Rama Srinivasan studied medicine in Trinity College, Dublin and graduated with an honours degree in 2001. She obtained MRCPI in 2004 and completed a FRCPath in 2014 and successfully attained CSCST in Chemical Pathology the same year. She currently work as a consultant Chemical Pathologist in Blackrock Clinic and Bon Secours Hospital, Dublin. Her areas of interest are NPT and the post-analytical testing phase, particularly the communication of critical results
Dr Mary Keogan (Beaumont)
Prof Mary Keogan is the Clinical Lead, National Clinical Programme for Pathology, and a Consultant immunologist in Beaumont Hospital. She is the Medical Director of the National Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Service for Solid Organ Transplantation, National Specialty Director in Immunology, RCPI and an Honorary Clinical Associate Professor in RCSI
Ms Felicity Dempsey (POCT Consultancy)
Felicity Dempsey is the founder and head of POCT Consultancy Services based in Dublin, Ireland. She has an MSc in Biological Science and is certified in the Leadership and Management Programme in St James Hospital.
Felicity has 38 yrs experience in Clinical Chemistry Laboratories with the last 12 years as POCT Manager and grew the programme in that time to a fully connected POCT system involving over 200 POCT devices operated by 2000 nurses and 800 medical personnel. St. James's Hospital is the first connected POCT system to achieve accreditation to ISO 15189/22870
Felicity has been a featured participant in POCT workshops in Boston, Washington, Abu Dhabi, Lisbon and Oslo in the last 2 years in which she discussed future trends and developments in POCT. Felicity speaks regularly at scientific meetings to promote POCT as a vital discipline in the laboratories of the future. She is also a member of the Irish POCT Advisory Body, the PreAnalytics in Laboratory Medicine Society (PALMSoc) and is a fellow of the Academy of Clinical Science and Laboratory Medicine. Her mission is to ensure that the same standards of quality achieved in the main laboratory are achieved in the POCT Quality Management System.
POCT Consultancy Services provides training and support for POCT Managers in hospitals and diagnostic companies in both the public and private sector. It also provide support in developing strategies and systems to identify the best use of POCT devices in a healthcare setting and provides support and guidance in achieving compliance in POCT Accreditation.
The laboratory plays a vital role in screening for disease, diagnosis, risk assessment, treatment selection, monitoring of therapy, prognosis and other aspects of clinical decision making. Laboratory Medicine in Ireland has developed a very high standard of service and provides a very effective service to clinical users. Not all areas of the total testing process are under the direct provision of laboratories and the area of perianalytics (Pre and Post) has proven to be very error prone. The mission of the PALMSoc is to enhance patient care and improve outcomes by promoting and improving the scientific, professional and clinical aspects of the perianalytical phases in Laboratory Medicine at a National level.
Mission Vision
Terms of Reference
To promote the importance of the quality of the perianalytical (pre and post analytical) phases of Laboratory Medicine
To develop and organise study days, workshops, webinars or training courses on perianalytical phase issues
To develop a national community of all stakeholders interested in the perianalytical phases
To define the best practices and provide recommendations for some critical activities in the perianalytical phases
