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.