Cathal Breen
cathal breen

Prof Cathal Breen

Professor

 0131 455 5214

  C.Breen@napier.ac.uk

   

Biography

Professor Cathal Breen is board-certified by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a Clinical Scientist of Cardiac Physiology. His practice focuses around cardiac diagnosis and technology enhanced learning. Cathal has almost 20 years’ experience working in academia, educating health and medical students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, supervising Masters and PhD projects. His PhD focused on the acquisition of expertise within the clinical domain and his published work demonstrates the impact smartphone applications, clinical decision support systems and augmented reality make to health professions education learning efficiency and knowledge retention. He currently leads the simulation and clinical skills department at Edinburgh Napier which facilitates Nursing, Midwifery, Allied Health Professions and Social Work professions education and research. Cathal holds an Honorary Research Consultant position, NHS Lothian, Scotland.
External roles include:
Clinical Facilitator Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency (NIMDTA).
Associate of the National School of Healthcare Sciences, Higher Education England, UK.
Cardiac and Vascular physiology theme lead, The Physiological Society, UK & Ireland.
Cardiac Devices Specialist Group Member, Public Health Scotland, Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme (SCAP).
External examiner, new Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Medical technologies at TUS (formerly Limerick Institute of Technology) (until 2024).
External examiner, BSc Hons Healthcare Science (Cardiology), PGCert Cardiac Device and Rhythm Management and PGCert Echocardiography, The Medical School, University of Leeds, UK (until 2024)
External examiner, PhD examiner, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR CRN), University of Leeds, Leeds, UK (currently).
External examiner, Certificate of Healthcare Science, City, London, UK (until 2023)
Member of faculty Academy of Healthcare Science, Leicestershire, UK (currently)
Member of faculty National School for Healthcare Science, Birmingham, UK (currently)

School

Research Groups

Themes

Research Areas

News

Events

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • Council of Deans of Health Research Strategic Policy Group
  • Cardiac and Vascular physiology theme lead, The Physiological Society, UK & Ireland.
  • Cardiac Devices Specialist Group Member, Public Health Scotland, Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme (SCAP).

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • Heart Rhythm 2024
  • International Association for Health Profession s Education (AMEE)
  • NHS Lothian Health & Care Professions Research Conference

 

Editorial Activity

  • Clinical Simulation in Nursing

 

External Examining/Validations

  • Clinical Facilitator Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency (NIMDTA).
  • External examiner, BSc Hons Healthcare Science (Cardiology), PGCert Cardiac Device and Rhythm Management and PGCert Echocardiography, The Medical School, University of Leeds, UK
  • External examiner, new Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Medical technologies at TUS (formerly Limerick Institute of Technology
  • External examiner, PhD examiner, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR CRN), University of Leeds, Leeds, UK (currently).
  • External examiner, Certificate of Healthcare Science, City, London, UK (until 2023)

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Clinical Academic Research Gateway Awards First Steps into Research Award

 

Grant Funding Panel Member

  • NIHR reviewer

 

Grant Reviewer

  • Grant reviewer activity

 

Invited Speaker

  • Gaming for Sustainability

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Society for Simulation in Europe
  • Irish Association for Simulation
  • Physiological Society
  • Member of Faculty Academy of Healthcare Science
  • Society of Cardiological Science and Technology
  • British Society of Echocardiography

 

Non-executive Directorship

  • Scottish Heart and Arterial Disease (SHARP) Board Trustee

 

Visiting Positions

  • JBI Field Collaborator
  • Expert Reference Group for the JBI Cardiovascular Field.

 

Filter by

Date


47 results

Effectiveness of Personalised Auditory Stimuli in Managing Critically Ill Adult Comatose Patients: A Systematic Review

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Varghese, R., Wojcik, G., Baruah, R., Rayamajhi, S., & Breen, C. (2025, May)
Effectiveness of Personalised Auditory Stimuli in Managing Critically Ill Adult Comatose Patients: A Systematic Review. Poster presented at SICS 2025, Crieff
Background Comatose patients face significant challenges, including sensory disorders, long-term immobility, and reduced quality of life. 1,2 The limited sensory stimulation ...

Advancing Cardiovascular Health: Photoplethysmography as a Tool for ECG Signal Acquisition

Journal Article
Breen, C., & Hendriks, J. (2025)
Advancing Cardiovascular Health: Photoplethysmography as a Tool for ECG Signal Acquisition. European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 24(2), 314-315. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjcn/zvae176

A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Personalised Auditory Stimuli in Managing Critically Ill Adult Comatose Patients

Report
Varghese, R., Wojcik, G., Baruah, R., Rayamajhi, S., & Breen, C. (2024)
A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Personalised Auditory Stimuli in Managing Critically Ill Adult Comatose Patients

Exploring the role of the clinical decision support system in delivering multimodal interventions for delirium care in ICU adults: a scoping review protocol

Other
Kandel, D., Al Bayrakdar, A., Jiwaji, Z., & Breen, C. (2024)
Exploring the role of the clinical decision support system in delivering multimodal interventions for delirium care in ICU adults: a scoping review protocol
Delirium is a frequently reported significant complication in acute and critically ill patients. Multimodal interventions can potentially decrease delirium incidence and sever...

Heart Failure: Weight Loss in Patients with Overweight and Obesity

Report
Breen, C. (2024)
Heart Failure: Weight Loss in Patients with Overweight and Obesity. JBI

Patient Centred Medical Education Workshop

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Breen, C. (2024, June)
Patient Centred Medical Education Workshop. Presented at Patient Centred Medical Education Workshop, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
Trainees, patients and healthcare providers all benefit from better training through practice, feedback and objective assessment. We would like to invite you to join a group o...

Technology Enhanced Assessment of Clinical Skills

Presentation / Conference
Breen, C. (2024, June)
Technology Enhanced Assessment of Clinical Skills. Poster presented at SESAM 2024, Prague, Czech Republic

Live streaming of simulation-based learning to assist in clinical skills development

Presentation / Conference
Breen, C. (2024, June)
Live streaming of simulation-based learning to assist in clinical skills development. Poster presented at SESAM 2024, Prague, Czech Republic

Live streaming of simulation-based learning to assist in clinical skills development

Presentation / Conference
Introduction: Background, Context and Aims Simulation-based learning allows students to practice clinical scenarios in a controlled and safe environment, making it a valuable ...

Designing, Implementing and Evaluating the Effectiveness of a New Delivery Model of Simulation Based Education of Clinical Skills and Scenarios at Edinburgh Napier University

Presentation / Conference
Breen, C. (2024, April)
Designing, Implementing and Evaluating the Effectiveness of a New Delivery Model of Simulation Based Education of Clinical Skills and Scenarios at Edinburgh Napier University. Paper presented at NES Annual Virtual Conference 2024, Online

Pre-Napier Funded Projects

  • Wellcome Trust Arts Awards

Current Post Grad projects

Non-Napier PhD or MSc by Research supervisions

  • The role of invasive cardiopulmonary exercise testing as a diagnostic tool for people with suspected heart failure
  • An evaluation of physical activity induced reductions in epicardial fat thickness and atrial fibrillation incidence.
  • Can sensory integration have a role in multi‐element behavioural intervention? An evaluation of factors associated with the management of challenging behaviour in community adult learning disability services
  • Enhancement of the student learning experience during clinical placement using technology-assisted social constructivism.
  • Concomitantly Programmed Atrial Anti-tachycardia Pacing (aATP) and Atrial Tachyarrhythmia Prevention Pacing (APP) Algorithms to reduce Atrial Fibrillation (AF) Burden in Patients with Implantable Dual Chamber Pacemakers: A systematic review.
  • The role of echocardiographic strain and strain rate imaging in discriminating non obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy from physiological and hypertensive LVH.
  • To determine the beneficial effects of right ventricular septal cardiac pacing vs right ventricular apical pacing on left ventricular function as measured by ejection fraction using echocardiography: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials in patients requiring chronic ventricular pacing with preserved LV function
  • Inappropriate therapy in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators: A systematic critical review.