Mary-Anne Ryan

Research Support Officer

Contact Details:

Email: maryanne.ryan@ucc.ie

Mary Anne is a Research Support Officer at INFANT, she is currently involved in the recruitment, coordinating follow up and data management for the Early Detection & Intervention for Cerebral Palsy in Ireland study (EDI-CP) – which aims to try and reduce the age of diagnosis of CP by assessing children in high risk out-patient clinics using specific clinical exams.

She is also recruiting and carrying out assessments in a feasibility study assessing Newborn Brain Function using an automated AI assessment tool.

Mary Anne joined INFANT team in September 2016. She is a registered general nurse with specialist registration in paediatrics and midwifery(neonatal specialist care). On completion of her registration, she spent seven years in Australia, working in a wide variety of clinical settings and also in the area of education.

This included course development and clinical support for paediatric nursing students in the University of New South Wales. Once back in Ireland, she returned to clinical practice and further education.

Mary Anne completed her PhD in 2023 which focused on the sleep architecture of low-risk preterm infants using EEG in the NICU. Her research also described the developmental outcome of the Moderate to Late preterm infant group.

Mary Anne participated in multiple observational studies and clinical trials conducted in the neonatal unit in CUMH and has a keen interest in the use of artificial intelligence in the NICU. She has presented at many international conferences, conducted workshops, published in many journals and collaborated internationally.

Career Profile

  • 2016-Present Research Support Officer, INFANT, UCC
  • 2017-2023 Registered PhD student, INFANT, UCC
  • 2016 An Introduction to the Ethics of Health Research, UCC
  • 2015 Nursing Management of Neonate UCC/CUMH
  • 2013-2015 MSc Health Care Ethics and Law, RCSI
  • 2007-2016 Midwife/ Neonatal nurse, Neonatal Unit, CUMH
  • 2002-2007 Practice Midwife, Private obstetric and Gynae practice, Cork Clinic
  • 2001-2001 MComm (Public Administration), Department of Government, UCC
  • 1996 – 1999 BSc Nursing (Hons) Dept of Nursing UCC
  • 1989 – 1993 Medical, surgical, midwifery, paediatric and neonatal clinical practice
  • 1988-1989 Registration in Midwifery, Australia
  • 1982-1986 Nurse registration; Integrated General and Paediatric Nursing (Hons.)

Professional Activities

1. Publications

  • Ryan MA. (2017). Advocacy: Defacto partner to neonatal nursing practice. Journal of Neonatal Nursing23(1);5-8.
  • Ryan MA., Ryan CA., Dempsey E. (2017) Consent for routine neonatal procedures in Irish neonatal units. How do we compare with BAPM guidelines? Irish Medical Journal, Jun 9;110(6):584
  • Ryan, M. A., Mathieson, S., Dempsey, E. & Boylan, G. An Introduction to Neonatal EEG. J Perinat Neonatal Nurs 35, 369-376 (2021). https://doi.org:10.1097/jpn.0000000000000599
  • Ryan, M. A. et al. Nocturnal sleep architecture of preterm infants in the NICU. Infant 16 (2020).
  • Ryan, M. A. et al. Sleep state organisation of moderate to late preterm infants in the neonatal unit. Pediatr Res (2022). https://doi.org:10.1038/s41390-022-02319-x
  • Wei, S. Ventura, M. A. Ryan, S. Mathieson, G. B. Boylan, M. Lowery, et al. Deep-spindle: An automated sleep spindle detection system for analysis of infant sleep spindles. Computers in Biology and Medicine 2022 Vol. 150 Pages 106096. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2022.106096
  • Ventura, S. R. Mathieson, J. M. O’Toole, V. Livingstone, M.-A. Ryan and G. B. Boylan.Electroencephalographic sleep macrostructure and sleep spindles in early infancy. Sleep 45 (2021). https://doi.org:10.1093/sleep/zsab262
  • Aisling A. Garvey, John M. O’Toole, Vicki Livingstone, Brian Walsh, Michael Moore, Andreea    Pavel, Lavinia Panaite, Mary Anne Ryan, Geraldine B. Boylan, Deirdre M. Murray, Eugene M. Dempsey. Evolution of early cerebral NIRS in hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy. Acta Paediatrica 111, 1870-1877 (2022). https://doi.org:https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.16493
  • Smith V, Delaney H, Hunter A, Torgerson D, Treweek S, Gamble C, Mills M, Stanbury K, Dempsey E, Daly M, O’Shea J, Weatherup K, Deshpande S, Ryan MA, Lowe J, Black G, Devane D. Training trial recruiters: an educational and training intervention for recruiters to neonatal trials. Final report. Health Research Board Trials Methodology Research Network (HRB-TMRN), University of Galway and Trinity College Dublin: Oct 2022.
  • ER de Groot, MA Ryan, C Sam, O Verschuren, T Alderliesten T, J Dudink , A van den Hoogen. Evaluation of Sleep Practices and Knowledge in Neonatal Healthcare Advances in Neonatal Care, August 2023 DOI: 10.1097/ANC.00000000001102

2. Presentations:

  • Paediatric Academic Society (PAS), Baltimore 2017. Consent for routine neonatal procedures in Irish neonatal units and how we compare with BAPM guidelines (poster presentation)
  • Irish Research Nurses Network (IRNN), Galway 2017. Procedural consent in Irish neonatal units (oral presentation)
  • Congress of Joint European neonatal societies (JENS) Maastricht 2019 –Sleep wake cycling in the mid to late preterm infant in the neonatal unit (oral presentation).
  • European Academy of Paediatric Societies(EAPS 2020 Virtual). Sleep architecture of Moderate to Late Preterm infants over a 12-hour period in the NICU(Oral Presentation)
  • Joint European Neonatal Society (JENS 2021) Sleep in the NICU(e-Poster)
  • Irish Neonatal Research Symposium Nov 2021. EEG Sleep analysis of the Preterm Infant in the neonatal unit (Best poster award)
  • European Academy of Paediatric Societies(EAPS Barcelona 2022,). Developmental outcome of a healthy moderate to late preterm infant group versus a term born infant group(Oral Presentation)
  • Australia New Zealand Brain Club(ABC, Melbourne 2023) Electrographic monitoring for seizure detection in the NICU, current practices and Future direction ( Oral presentation made by Atul Malhotra on my behalf)