The Health Research Board (HRB) has presented its 2023 Impact Award to consultant neurologist, Prof Orla Hardiman.

According to HRB chief executive, Dr Mairéad O’Driscoll, this award celebrates people whose research improves health policy and practice and leads to meaningful change for people’s health.

“I can’t think of a better example of that than Prof Hardiman. Throughout her career she has put her patients and their families first. This has been the main driver for her research and her contribution to advancing professional practice. Her ability to deliver is not just down to her innovative ideas, clinical excellence or her ability to advocate, but because she is guided always by the impact that her work has on patients. That is why she is so deserving of this award,” Dr O’Driscoll said.

Prof Hardiman is a consultant neurologist at Beaumont Hospital, a professor of neurology at Trinity College Dublin and the national clinical lead in neurology at the HSE.

Her early scientific work provided new insights into the complex genetic components of neurodegenerative diseases and she established the first specialist multidisciplinary clinics in Ireland for neurological conditions.

Her HRB-funded research has supported the longest running population-based register for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)/motor neurone disease (MND) in the world. This has inspired similar registers in the US and Latin America to which she has also contributed her expertise.

She established an MND clinic at Beaumont Hospital which has gone on to become the national centre for MND, providing direct care for over 80% of Irish patients with the condition. It is also recognised as a European and global centre of excellence.

She founded the Neurological Alliance of Ireland in 1999, which is an umbrella organisation that encompasses 24 organisations catering to the needs of 800,000 people in Ireland with neurological conditions. 

She has also inspired and motivated a generation of health researchers. She has supervised many healthcare professionals including 29 PhDs and 10 consultant neurologists.

“Very early in my professional life, I made a conscious decision that all of my research endeavours would be guided by my experience as a working clinician and by my desire to improve the lives of those whom I have the privilege of serving as a consultant neurologist,” Prof Hardiman explained.

She said that throughout her research career, she has continually asked herself “whether the research work we do matters in a real-world sense to those we serve”. In her clinical career, she has “tried to improve both the lot of people with chronic neurological diseases and to enhance clinical services for those with ALS/MND and related disorders”.

“I am aware that professional success never occurs in isolation and I am very fortunate to have been motivated by the many exceptionally bright students and trainees with whom I have worked throughout my professional life, all of whom have shaped my research career and outlook.

“It remains a great privilege to be able to support the wide range of cutting-edge scientific projects within our research group, of which I am very proud. And particularly as a mature woman, I appreciate the opportunity I have to continue to mentor younger female clinician scientists as they juggle career, family life and research,” she commented.

She also highlighted the fact that all of her clinical research work “has been built around the personal tragedies of those who have been diagnosed with MND and related conditions”.

“We are very thankful to the thousands of individuals and their families who continue to allow us to study and learn from their journeys. My genuine hope is that I, and our research group, have made an impact that will outlast our own professional careers and that we will in the future be able to say that ALS/MND is a chronic, rather than a fatal, condition,” she added.

Nominations for the award were assessed by an international panel who selected the overall winner.