Professor Vaughan is currently a Consultant Cardiologist at the Mercy University/Cork University Hospital in Cork. He did his further training to Cornell Medical Centre in New York from 1996 to 2004. Prof Vaughan has published widely on many aspects of cardiovascular disease including studies on the molecular genetic basis of inherited heart disease and dyslipidaemia.

Dr. Ronan Curtin is a consultant cardiologist at Cork University Hospital. He is a graduate of University College Cork and completed his Higher Specialist Training in Cardiology in Ireland, followed by an Advanced Cardiac Imaging Fellowship in Cleveland Clinic, USA. During his training years, he completed a Masters Degree in Cardiology (Trinity College, Dublin) and a Medical Doctorate (Royal College of Surgeons) on the topic of resistance to antiplatelet drugs. He was the recipient of a Young Investigator Award from the European Society of Cardiology in 2003. He went on faculty in the section of Cardiovascular Imaging, Cleveland Clinic in 2007, before returning to Ireland and Cork University Hospital in 2009. His special interests in Cardiology include cardiac imaging, valvular heart disease and heart failure.

Des is the clinical lead for asthma, ventilatory support in neuromuscular disease and pulmonary hypertension at the Cork University Hospital. Other areas of expertise include advanced lung disease, non-invasive ventilation, COPD and lung cancer. Des completed the Irish Specialist training program in Respiratory Medicine. Following the award of ERS fellowship he worked at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle as a clinical research fellow in lung transplantation where his research led to the award of PhD from Newcastle University. Subsequently, he was a post-doctoral fellow at McMaster University, Canada, where his interests were focused on asthma. He commenced his current positions as Consultant Physician in Respiratory Medicine/Senior lecturer in CUH/UCC in 2009.

He is a member of the Irish SPR Training Committee, member of the Clinical Research and Ethics Committee of the UCC affiliated hospital group, member of the ITS expert committee/Clinical advisory group to HSE for Asthma, member of the ITS expert committee/Clinical advisory group to HSE for COPD and a member of the medical and scientific committee of the Asthma Society of Ireland.

He heads an active research programme in clinical and translational medicine in CUH/UCC. He has acted as Principal and Chief investigator on several clinical trials, authored or co-authored over 90 publications in peer-reviewed journals, 3 book chapters, several national clinical guidelines and over 250 abstracts. Up to recently he was the National Clinical Lead for Respiratory Medicine.

Dr. David Curran is a Consultant Respiratory Physician at Mercy University Hospital, Cork. He is a graduate of University College Cork. He completed the Higher Specialist Training Programme in Respiratory Medicine in Ireland during which time he undertook a 2 year research project culminating in an MD degree. He pursued further clinical training and research at the Yale School of Medicine, Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine before returning to Cork to take up his current position in 2009.

His areas of clinical interest include obstructive sleep apnoea, non-invasive ventilation, asthma and COPD. He is a member of the Irish Sleep Society, European Sleep Research Society and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. He is currently the co-National Specialty Director for the Higher Specialist Training Programme in Respiratory Medicine.