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Professor Noel Mc Carthy

Professor of Population Health Medicine (Public Health & Primary Care)
      
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Professor Noel Mc Carthy

Professor of Population Health Medicine (Public Health & Primary Care)

 NOEL.MCCARTHY@tcd.ie

 


Noel McCarthy is Professor of Population Health Medicine at Trinity College Dublin. His principal research focus is on infectious disease epidemiology with broader interests applying research methods to public health problems. His teaching goal is to facilitate students to learn by thinking and reflective experience, whether that be specific and technical such as how to think as an epidemiologist, or more general such as reflecting on how power structures in a society affect the distribution of health and wellbeing. He qualified in medicine from Trinity in 1989, completed general internal medicine training Dublin and Cork before moving into infectious disease and public health and working internationally. This included refugee healthcare work in Africa with Médecins Sans Frontières, microbiology (St James's), field epidemiology training in Sweden, and work at the Food Safety Authority of Ireland before training in public health in the UK specialising in communicable disease control and infectious disease epidemiology with clinical posts as a consultant in communicable disease control and National Infection Service epidemiologist. Research training included an MSc (Medical Statistics) at the University of London and Wellcome Trust Fellowship supported DPhil at the University of Oxford integrating population genetic analyses in the epidemiology of bacterial disease (Campylobacter) supervised by Martin Maiden. Academic posts have been as a research fellow at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford and Professor of Communicable Disease Control Epidemiology at Warwick Medical School.
Project Title
 Quantifying the transmission routes of gastroenteritis in Pakistan and developing targeted interventions
From
December 2020
To
Novemeber 2023
Summary
Funding Agency
Medical Research Council
Project Title
 NIHR Health Potection Unit in Gastrointestinal Infection
From
April 2020
To
March 2025
Summary
Funding Agency
National Institute for Health Research
Project Title
 NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Genomics and Enabling Data
From
April 2020
To
March 2025
Summary
Funding Agency
National Institute for Health Research
Project Title
 HSE Clinical Fellowships
From
1/1/2025
To
31/12/2026
Summary
Three fellowships for senior Specialist registrars 1. Climate and Health Fellow: Working in collaboration with HSE Climate and Health Improvement Teams to develop evidence for climate impact of public health interventions. (HSE leads Dr Ina Kelly and Dr Diarmuid O'Donovan). Fellow Dr Teresa O'Dowd. 2. Migrant health needs assessment fellow. Collaboration with Dublin and Midlands Region of the HSE to undertake needs assessment to support provision of healthcare to migrant populations. HSE leads Dr Triona McNicholas adn Dr Fionnuala Cooney. Fellow Dr Caitriona Kelly. 3. Child health information fellow: Collaborative fellowship to develop evidence based health information for school aged children for the HSE My Child programme. HSE Leads Dr Fiona Cianci and Ms Anne Pardy. Fellow Dt Therese McGlacken.
Funding Agency
HSE
Project Type
Fellowship
Person Months
1

Details Date
Chair. National Serosurveillance Programme Steering Group (2021-). October 2021-
Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
French Medium Medium Medium
Swedish Medium Medium Medium
Details Date From Date To
Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland July 2021
Member of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine (England) June 2000
Member of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland June 1992
Brennan M.M., Mongan D., Doyle A., Millar S.R., Cavallaro M., Zgaga L., Smyth B.P., Nixon E., Ivers J.-H., Galvin B., Walsh C., McCrory C., McCarthy N.D., Polysubstance use in early adulthood and associated factors in the Republic of Ireland: An analysis of a nationally representative cohort, Addiction, 2025, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Brennan, Margaret M and Mongan, Deirdre and Doyle, Anne and Millar, Se{\'a, Early and risky adolescent alcohol use independently predict alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and other drug use in early adulthood in Ireland: a longitudinal analysis of a nationally representative cohort, BMC Public Health, 25, (1), 2025, p1--10 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Cronin, Thomas, Healy, David, McCarthy, Noel, Smith, Susan M, Travers, John, Prevalence and risk factors of frailty in people experiencing homelessness: A systematic review and meta-analysis, The Journal of Frailty & Aging, 14, (2), 2025, p100029 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Deirdre Mongan, Seán Millar, Margaret M. Brennan, Anne Doyle, Brian Galvin, Noel McCarthy, Longitudinal associations between childhood adversity and alcohol use behaviours in early adulthood: Examining the mediating roles of parental and peer relationships, Child Abuse & Neglect, 161, 2025, p107302 - 107302, p107302-107302 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Brennan MM, Cavallaro M, Mongan D, Doyle A, Millar SR, Zgaga L, Smyth BP, Nixon E, Ivers JH, Galvin B, Walsh C, McCrory C, McCarthy ND., Factors Associated With Cocaine Use at 17 and 20 Years Old: A Longitudinal Analysis of a Nationally Representative Cohort., The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 2025, pS1054-139X(24)00551-2 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Margaret M. Brennan, Ciara Corrigan, Deirdre Mongan, Anne Doyle, Brian Galvin, Elizabeth Nixon, Lina Zgaga, Bobby Smyth, Jo-Hanna Ivers, Noel D McCarthy, Predictors and outcomes of adolescent alcohol and drug use: a scoping review, European Journal of Public Health, European Public Health Conference, Lisbon, 11-15 November 2024, 34, (S3), Oxford Academic, 2024, ppiii232 - iii232, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  URL
Deirdre Mongan, Seán Millar, Margaret M. Brennan, Anne Doyle, Brian Galvin, Noel McCarthy, Associations and mediating factors between adverse childhood experiences and substance use behaviours in early adulthood: A population-based longitudinal study, Addictive Behaviors, 161, 2024, p108194 - 108194, p108194-108194 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
M M Brennan, Anna Beth Doyle, David Mongan, Seán Millar, Brian Galvin, Elizabeth Nixon, Bobby P. Smyth, Lina Zgaga, Jo"Hanna Ivers, Noel McCarthy, Examining the link between age of alcohol initiation, adolescent alcohol use and adult substance use, European Journal of Public Health, 34, (Supplement_3), 2024, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Margaret M. Brennan M.Sc. a , Massimo Cavallaro Ph.D. b c , Deirdre Mongan Ph.D. d , Anne Doyle M.Sc. d , Seán R. Millar Ph.D. d e , Lina Zgaga Ph.D. a , Bobby P. Smyth Ph.D. a f , Elizabeth Nixon Ph.D. g , Jo-Hanna Ivers Ph.D. a , Brian Galvin M.A. d , Cathal Walsh Ph.D. a , Cathal McCrory Ph.D. h , Noel D. McCarthy D.Phil, Examining factors associated with cocaine use in late adolescence and early adulthood, The European Journal of Public Health, 2024, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Nicola Love, Claire Jenkins, Noel McCarthy, Kate S. Baker, Petra Manley, Deborah Wilson, International travel as a risk factor for gastrointestinal infections in residents of North East England, Epidemiology and Infection, 152, 2024, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
  

Page 1 of 17
Creane, D., Hayes, C., O Ciardha, D., Smith, S. M., Campbell, A. & Mc Carthy, N., Health data to support local communities, 1, Trinity College Dublin, January 2024, 2024, p1 - 12, Notes: [Demonstration of marked disparity in presence of asthma among residents of a housing complex and those living nearby. This is relevant for housing policy and the importance of granular health data to identify health needs.], Report, PUBLISHED
Campylobacter in, editor(s)Deng X, den Bakker HC, Hendriksen RS , Applied Genomics of Foodborne Pathogens. , Switzerland, Springer International Publishing,, 2017, pp127 - 143, [McCarthy, ND.], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Clinical Epidemiology in, editor(s)Abubakar I, Stagg HR, Cohen T, Rodrigues LC , Infectious Disease Epidemiology. , Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016, pp119 - 132, [McCarthy ND, Smith A.], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Molecular Epidemiology of Campylobacter Species in, editor(s)Nachamkin I, Szymanski CM, Blaser MJ , Campylobacter, Washington, ASM Press, 2008, pp191 - 211, [ON SLW, McCarthy ND, Miller WG, Gilpin BJ], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED

  


Research interests have focused on the integration of pathogen genetic data in infectious disease epidemiology, developing and applying novel epidemiological approaches in communicable disease control, using routinely collected data for research, and a broad range of work linking research into public health practice. Research contributions in these areas are outlined below. The development of an approach to source attribution of pathogens to zoonotic reservoirs applying population genetic algorithms using the example of Campylobacter infection [PMC2063414] with subsequent validation [PMC3988352] and application to human infection [PMC2916502]. This has become a standard approach as recently reviewed [PMC6820127] including in national monitoring projects in the UK. Integrating bacterial genome sequence data with other epidemiological data including developing and validating core genome multi-locus sequence typing [PMC5483910] for outbreak detection in population level surveillance [PMC3719633], ad hoc application studies such as the emergence of an STEC clone [PMC6256402](7) investigating care setting streptococcal [PMC4880081] and milk-borne Campylobacter [PMC4551004] outbreaks, population studies of the distribution of TB transmission [PMC4571080], and the ecology of Campylobacter as it relates to human infection [PMC3487483]. Reviewing the use of approaches using the multi-locus sequence typing paradigm in epidemiology [PMC3980634]. Developing novel epidemiological approaches in applied infectious disease epidemiology such as: describing case-case comparisons based on bacterial subtypes [PMID: 10480708] which is now widely used (a "case-case" and "infection" search in Google Scholar returns over 9,000 items); applying classical epidemiological studies to the food supply chain in outbreaks [PMC6053626]; validating temporospatial approaches to detecting smaller outbreaks [PMID: 24690264]; the use of internet panels for controls in outbreak investigation [PMC5848756]; and the use of modelling approaches to evaluate disease control interventions [PMID: 21859502]. Diverse collaborative work includes contributions to vaccine trials [PMID: 26165918], evaluation of the herd immunity effects of childhood vaccination [PMID: 27955789] with direct policy implications for adult vaccination policy and basic science work on Campylobacter [PMC18403712].