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

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

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

 

Conference Organising Activity

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

 

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, PhD examiner, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR CRN), University of Leeds, Leeds, UK (currently).
  • External examiner, new Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Medical technologies at TUS (formerly Limerick Institute of Technology
  • External examiner, Certificate of Healthcare Science, City, London, UK (until 2023)

 

Grant Funding Panel Member

  • NIHR reviewer

 

Grant Reviewer

  • Grant reviewer activity

 

Membership of Professional Body

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

 

Visiting Positions

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

 

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Date


32 results

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 ...

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

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

Human versus machine vision based ergonomic risk assessment of patient handling in health care professionals

Working Paper
Breen, C., Valentin, S., & Ryan, C. Human versus machine vision based ergonomic risk assessment of patient handling in health care professionals

)
Breen, C., Valentin, S., & Ryan, C. Human versus machine vision based ergonomic risk assessment of patient handling in health care professionals

Brugada Syndrome: Catheter Ablation

Other
Breen, C. (2024)
Brugada Syndrome: Catheter Ablation. [Text]
Evidence summary

Can clinical homes influence practice? A description of a first of kind clinical home for Healthcare Science in Scotland

Presentation / Conference
Breen, C. (2023, November)
Can clinical homes influence practice? A description of a first of kind clinical home for Healthcare Science in Scotland. Presented at Lothian Health and Care Professions Research Conference 2023, Edinburgh, UK
This is a presentation to describe the first clinical home experience for Healthcare Scientists in NHS Lothian. The aims of clinical and academic homes are to foster career d...

A scoping review exploring adoption of digital stress management resources for long-term health conditions – just useful for respiratory conditions?

Journal Article
Roberts, N., Gebreheat, G., MacLean, F., Connolly, F., Breen, C., & Porter-Armstrong, A. (2023)
A scoping review exploring adoption of digital stress management resources for long-term health conditions – just useful for respiratory conditions?. Thorax, 78(Suppl 4), Article A265. https://doi.org/10.1136/thorax-2023-btsabstracts.400

Supporting the learning experience of health‐related profession students during clinical placements with technology: A systematic review

Journal Article
Jones, A., Wilson, I., McClean, S., Kerr, D., & Breen, C. (2022)
Supporting the learning experience of health‐related profession students during clinical placements with technology: A systematic review. Review of Education, 10(2), Article e3364. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3364
High quality clinical education is a fundamental component of undergraduate health-related professions programmes. Technological interventions offer potential to support and e...

Academic, clinical and personal experiences of undergraduate healthcare students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A prospective cohort study

Journal Article
McFadden, S., Guille, S., Daly-Lynn, J., O’Neill, B., Marley, J., Hanratty, C., …Hughes, C. (2022)
Academic, clinical and personal experiences of undergraduate healthcare students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A prospective cohort study. PLOS ONE, 17(7), Article e0271873. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271873
Background Coronavirus disease 2019 has impacted upon the role and safety of healthcare workers, with the potential to have a lasting effect on their wellbeing. Limited resear...

Electrocardiogram interpretation competency among emergency nurses and emergency medical service (EMS) personnel: A cross‐sectional and comparative descriptive study

Journal Article
Rahimpour, M., Shahbazi, S., Ghafourifard, M., Gilani, N., & Breen, C. (2021)
Electrocardiogram interpretation competency among emergency nurses and emergency medical service (EMS) personnel: A cross‐sectional and comparative descriptive study. Nursing Open, 8(4), 1712-1719. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.809
Aims The aim of this research study was to compare electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation competency among emergency nurses and EMS personnel. Design A cross-sectional compar...

An evaluation of physical activity induced reductions in epicardial fat thickness in people with atrial fibrillation incidence: an umbrella review Citation

Working Paper
Menzies, R., Breen, C., & Kernohan, G. An evaluation of physical activity induced reductions in epicardial fat thickness in people with atrial fibrillation incidence: an umbrella review Citation

)
Menzies, R., Breen, C., & Kernohan, G. An evaluation of physical activity induced reductions in epicardial fat thickness in people with atrial fibrillation incidence: an umbrella review Citation

ATP and prevention pacing to reduce AF burden in pacemaker patients

Presentation / Conference
McMahon, L., & Breen, C. (2020, September)
ATP and prevention pacing to reduce AF burden in pacemaker patients. Poster presented at Heart Rhythm Congress, Manchester, UK [online]
Background/Objectives: Pacemakers detect subclinical atrial fibrillation that may be a predictor of risk of stroke. Evidence for the efficacy of algorithms for prevention and ...

A Best Evidence in Medical Education (BEME) Systematic Review of how technology is used during clinical placements to support the learning experience of undergraduate health-related profession students

Other
Jones, A., Wilson, I., Kerr, D., McClean, S., Breen, C., & McCoo, K. (2022)
A Best Evidence in Medical Education (BEME) Systematic Review of how technology is used during clinical placements to support the learning experience of undergraduate health-related profession students
Background: High quality clinical education is a fundamental component of undergraduate health-related professions programmes. Interventions which support and enhance the stud...

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

Journal Article
McGill, C., & Breen, C. J. (2020)
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. British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 48(2), 142-153. https://doi.org/10.1111/bld.12308
1.1 Introduction Adults with complex needs and severe learning disability present as a serious management problem within the community. Restrictive interventions are often use...

ECG interpretation skill acquisition: A review of learning, teaching and assessment

Journal Article
Breen, C., Kelly, G., & Kernohan, W. (2022)
ECG interpretation skill acquisition: A review of learning, teaching and assessment. Journal of Electrocardiology, 73, 125-128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2019.03.010
The recording of 12 lead electrocardiograms (ECG) is one of the most useful and commonly performed medical procedures. ECGs are used in diagnosis, risk-stratification manageme...

The Evaluation of a smartphone application to assist in novice 12 lead ECG interpretation performance

Presentation / Conference
Breen, C. (2019, March)
The Evaluation of a smartphone application to assist in novice 12 lead ECG interpretation performance. Presented at Trinity Health and Education International Research Conference (THEconf2019), Dublin
Introduction: The recording of 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs) is one of the most useful and commonly performed medical procedures. Interpretation of the 12-lead ECG involve...

Variability of human-annotations of 12-lead ECG features collected using a web system: Students vs. practitioners

Journal Article
Cairns, A. W., Bond, R. R., Breen, C., Finlay, D. D., Guldenring, D., & Peace, A. (2017)
Variability of human-annotations of 12-lead ECG features collected using a web system: Students vs. practitioners. Journal of Electrocardiology, 50(6), 858. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2017.08.041

Heart rate variability Indices for Bespoke Stress Management; an application of the ECG

Presentation / Conference
Breen, C. (2017, October)
Heart rate variability Indices for Bespoke Stress Management; an application of the ECG. Presented at Irish Cardiac Society Conference, Derry

A clinical decision support tool to assist with the interpretation of the 12-lead electrocardiogram

Journal Article
Breen, C., Bond, R., & Finlay, D. (2019)
A clinical decision support tool to assist with the interpretation of the 12-lead electrocardiogram. Health Informatics Journal, 25(1), 51-61. https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458216683534
This article reports the design and testing of a novel interactive method, abbreviated to ANALYSE (systemAtic aNALYsiS of Electrocardiography) to assist interpretation of 12-l...

Data Driven Computer Simulation to Analyse an ECG Limb Lead System Used in Connected Health Environments

Journal Article
Bond, R., Finlay, D. D., Guldenring, D., & Breen, C. (2016)
Data Driven Computer Simulation to Analyse an ECG Limb Lead System Used in Connected Health Environments. Methods of Information in Medicine, 55(03), 258-265. https://doi.org/10.3414/me15-01-0120
Background: Recently under the Connected Health initiative, researchers and small-medium engineering companies have developed Electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring devices that i...

A novel human-computer interface creating a framework for the cognitive ergonomics of ECG interpretation

Presentation / Conference
Cairns, A., Bond, R. R., Finlay, D., Breen, C., Guldenring, D., Gaffney, R., …Peace, A. (2016, October)
A novel human-computer interface creating a framework for the cognitive ergonomics of ECG interpretation. Poster presented at Irish Human Computer Interaction Conference, Cork
Predominantly the 12-lead Electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation process remains a paper based approach. However, the ECG in this format creates a significant cognitive worklo...

A computer-human interaction model to improve the diagnostic accuracy and clinical decision-making during 12-lead electrocardiogram interpretation

Journal Article
Cairns, A. W., Bond, R. R., Finlay, D. D., Breen, C., Guldenring, D., Gaffney, R., …Henn, P. (2016)
A computer-human interaction model to improve the diagnostic accuracy and clinical decision-making during 12-lead electrocardiogram interpretation. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 64, 93-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2016.09.016
Introduction The 12-lead Electrocardiogram (ECG) presents a plethora of information and demands extensive knowledge and a high cognitive workload to interpret. Whilst the ECG ...

The evaluation of an open source online training system for teaching 12 lead electrocardiographic interpretation

Journal Article
Breen, C., Zhu, T., Bond, R., Finlay, D., & Clifford, G. (2016)
The evaluation of an open source online training system for teaching 12 lead electrocardiographic interpretation. Journal of Electrocardiology, 49(3), 454-461. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2016.02.003
Introduction The aim of this study is to present and evaluate the integration of a low resource JavaScript based ECG training interface (CrowdLabel) and a standardised curricu...

Interactive progressive-based approach to aid the human interpretation of the 12-lead Electrocardiogram

Conference Proceeding
Cairns, A. W., Bond, R. R., Finlay, D. D., Breen, C. J., Guldenring, D., Gaffney, R., …Peace, A. J. (2015)
Interactive progressive-based approach to aid the human interpretation of the 12-lead Electrocardiogram. In 2015 Computing in Cardiology Conference (CinC). https://doi.org/10.1109/cic.2015.7408620
The 12-lead Electrocardiogram (ECG) is an important diagnostic support tool but is frequently incorrectly interpreted. This is partly due to the fact that even expert clinicia...

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.