Prof Desmond O’Neill is a geriatrician and stroke physician at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. His research centres on gerontology and the neurosciences, with a strong emphasis on the humanities. He has over 300 peer-reviewed papers and chapters, and is a co-founder and immediate past-president of the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society www.eugms.org .
He was a founder chair of the Council on Stroke of the Irish Heart Foundation, medical director of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, and Chair of the Irish government’s working group on elder abuse. A co-PI of the Irish National Audit of Stroke Care, he is currently also co-PI of the Irish National Audit of Dementia Care.
He is the Chair of the National Centre for Arts and Health www.artshealthwellbeing.ie. He has worked with a number of cultural agencies and institutions to develop the concepts of arts, ageing and health, including the National Gallery of Ireland, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the Irish Film Institute and the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dublin. He helped develop the first course for artists in health care in Ireland, has broadcast on Lyric FM (Ireland’s classical music station), and is an active contributor to BMJ blogs http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/category/desmond-oneill/ and national media. He was awarded the All-Ireland Inspirational Life Award in 2010 for advancing the cause of older people in Ireland