RCSI Safe and Sound Podcast

RCSI Charter Meeting Bonus Episode
RCSI is delighted to announce that Episode 5, featuring Mr David Moore. RCSI Council Member, Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon at Children's Health Ireland at Crumlin, Tallaght University Hospital and Blackrock Clinic Dublin, of our Safe and Sound podcast is OUT NOW. With a high number of listeners from across different countries and specialties, Season 3 will again provide a spotlight on key pillars within the ecosystem of Human Factors in Patient Safety.
RCSI's latest podcast episode was hosted by Dr Fardod O’Kelly, RCSI Safe and Sound Podcast Host and Senior Lecturer in Surgical Education.

Dr. Sudipto Das completed a Bachelor’s in Technology (B.Tech) - Biotechnology (honours) from Rai Foundation Colleges, Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Mumbai, India in 2007, followed by a M.Res – Biomedical Sciences, University of Glasgow, U.K in 2008. Subsequently, Dr. Das obtained his PhD in cancer genetics under the supervision of Prof. Raymond Stallings in 2012. He has also spent time as a visiting research fellow in VIB, K.U., Leuven, VuMC, Amsterdam and Hoshi University, Tokyo Japan. His doctoral work gave him the opportunity to develop a core expertise in the area of epigenetics focused on DNA methylation alterations and non-coding RNAs, which he further enhanced during his Post-doctoral career. This has allowed Dr. Das to obtain prestigious fellowship from organizations such as the Irish Cancer Society, obtain several awards, develop various national and international collaborations and publish highly cited peer review articles in high-impact scientific journals (including Cancer Research, Oncogene, JCI, Nat Comms, JCO, Cancer Discovery). 

Dr. Das’s key research focus involves application of genomics and epigenomics approaches across a several diseases especially cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases as well as heart failure, with the aim to identifying potential predictive/prognostic biomarkers and/or therapeutic targets that can ultimately aid in enhancing better patient care. His expertise has in turn allowed him to develop various international and national collaboration leading to successful funding applications from British Heart Foundation and Heart Research U.K and Japan Society for Promotion of Science. To date, Dr. Das has accrued >3.5 million euro in funding from national and international funding agencies inlcuding Research Ireland, Health Research Board, Enterprise Ireland and European Crohn's and Colitis foundation, allowing him to establish the "Epigenetics in Gastrointestinal research group". The research group primarily focusses on identifying the role of epigenetic modification as novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets in GI diseases.
 
Dr. Das has led development and expansion of an award winning M.Sc  - Technologies & Analytics in Precision medicine established in 2021 funded by the Higher Education Authority - Human Captial Iniative grant. The graduates of this programme continue to gain emplyment in leading companies such as EY, Pfizer, Grifols as well as secure prestigious PhD positions.  As Vice Dean for AI and digital, connected health at RCSI, Dr. Das aims to lead the University to effectively embed AI and digital health-associated applications and concepts in research, education as well as operations/service efficiency.

Dr. Suzanne Crowe studied in TCD and graduated in Medicine in 1995. She spent the summer of 1994 as a medical student working as a researcher with the Department of Surgery in the Meath Hospital, and following entry into postgraduate training with the College of Anaesthetists in Ireland, she continued her research and writing interests. After completion of specialist training in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Dr. Crowe worked as a Fellow in the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. She returned to Dublin in 2005, taking up a clinical post as Consultant Anaesthetist with a special interest in Paediatrics in Tallaght Hospital. The following year she became Clinical Lecturer in Surgery in TCD and contributed to the teaching of TCD medical students. In 2014 Dr. Crowe changed consultant post, becoming a Consultant Paediatric Intensivist and Anaesthetist in Our Lady's Children's Hospital Crumlin, and subsequently also Senior Clinical Lecturer in Paediatrics TCD. During her long association with TCD, Dr. Crowe has authored and co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. She is President Elect of the Irish Medical Council for the term 2021-2025, the youngest incoming President in the IMC.

Niall qualified as a doctor from Trinity College, Dublin in 1993. He trained as a surgeon in Belfast and received his FRCSI in 1997. He was a trainee in cardio-thoracic surgery working as an SHO in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast before returning to Dublin where he worked as a registrar in the National Cardiac Surgery Unit in the Mater Hospital and Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin.
He subsequently retrained as an airline pilot with Aer Lingus in 1999 and combined aviation with medicine by working as an Accident & Emergency doctor for six years before focusing fully on aviation. After operating as a co-pilot on both the European and Trans-Atlantic fleets, he qualified as a captain in 2010. He is currently operating out of their Manchester base on the Airbus A330 Trans-Atlantic fleet.
In 2011, Niall formed Frameworkhealth Ltd, a company providing aviation-style safety training modified specifically for healthcare which draws on his thirty-five years of experience between both industries. The company has since evolved into Framework Safety Group Ltd. This project aims to share aviation’s Safety Management System blended with Human Factors and Evolutionary Psychology with healthcare and other industries in order to address the huge issue of Adverse Events, usually caused by systemic faults but often blamed on the last individual to have touched the ball. Niall aims to encourage industries, especially healthcare to adopt a Just Culture, embed a systemic Human Factors approach and empower staff, patients and their families to speak up as part of the crew. His approach is based on the premise that technology and society have evolved faster in the last century than the human brain can accommodate so we need to adapt to account for this in order to reduce the number of adverse events. He has spoken at many conferences locally, nationally and internationally on the topic.
Niall has contributed articles both to specialist journals and national newspapers such as The Irish Times. He has also given interviews for national television including RTE TV News and Virgin Media and has been interviewed several times on BBC Radio. In 2016, Niall was appointed an Expert Advisor to the Northern Ireland Executive’s Dept of Health following a well received TEDx talk in Stormont’s Great Hall.
Niall cycled at national level for thirteen years and at pro-am international level for several years in the early 90s and was a member of Northern Ireland’s Commonwealth Games panel. He subsequently worked as Medical Officer for both the Federation of Irish Cyclists (now Cycling Ireland) and the Ulster Cycling Federation. He also worked as a Race Doctor at international level for six years.
In 2023, Niall had his first book, ‘Oops! Why Things Go Wrong’ published which explored the increasingly topical issue of error across industry and society generally and most importantly, how to address it. The book is already in it’s second print run after a higher than anticipated demand.
The success of the book has led to many invitations from outside healthcare, hence Frameworkhealth’s evolution into Framework Safety Group Ltd in recognition of this broadening scope.

Prof Dara Byrne leads the development, and implementation, of simulation activities for education and training within the undergraduate and postgraduate medical curricula.
Dara’s work showcases the potential for simulation to support quality improvement, protocol and process development, medical device testing, healthcare innovation, and high quality research. Prof Byrne holds an advanced certification for healthcare simulation education from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH). She is Co-director of the Diploma and Masters in Healthcare Simulation and Patient Safety.