Lourda Geoghegan Medical Director

About me

Lourda is a GenerationQ Fellow and Medical Director at the Regulation and Quality Improvement Agency.

At the time of her fellowship she was a Health Protection Consultant at the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland. She led a multidisciplinary team working on health care associated infections, infection prevention and control, and antimicrobial stewardship.

After receiving her medical degree from the National University of Ireland in 1994, Lourda went on to specialise in internal medicine and public health. She completed a masters degree in public health in 2000 and held a health services research fellowship from 2001-04.

In 2008 Lourda completed higher specialist training in public health medicine and became a fellow of the UK Faculty of Public Health. She was awarded a doctorate in health services research by the National University of Ireland in 2009 and an Eisenhower Fellowship in 2010.

Lourda joined the Public Health Agency in early 2009, initially as a specialist public health registrar and then as a locum consultant regional epidemiologist at the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre. She took up her current role later the same year.

For Lourda, GenerationQ offers the perfect mix of personal leadership development and training in improvement methodologies, along with the opportunity to learn from colleagues based elsewhere in the UK.

'Northern Ireland is a small health service economy and I think it’s important to see how things work in other health systems and to work with colleagues from around the UK. I believe that GenerationQ will support me to become a more rounded leader and strengthen my ability to influence stakeholders from across the health system as well as from other areas that influence people's health and wellbeing, such as education and employment.'

The programme's emphasis on innovation and creative thinking is something that particularly appeals to Lourda. 'Throughout my medical training and postgraduate studies, the focus was always on facts and figures, deadlines and exams. I’m looking forward to being able to work in a less prescriptive way, with plenty of opportunities for creativity and personal reflection.'

One of the ideas that Lourda plans to explore is how to encourage good hand hygiene among primary school children. 'Children can miss lots of school when they fall ill with infections like influenza, norovirus and gastroenteritis, and they can also be 'super spreaders' of some infections. Teaching good hand hygiene at an early age makes it more likely to become an embedded habit which continues into adolescence and adulthood.'