Ciara Kirke

Biography

Ciara is Clinical Lead of the National Medication Safety Programme in the Health Service Executive, Ireland. The programme works with patients, healthcare professionals and organisations to reduce patient harm associated with medicines or their omission. She recently led the national collaborative which improved the appropriateness of venous thromboembolism prophylaxis by one-third across 27 hospitals. Currently, the work of the programme centres around the national implementation of the WHO Medication Without Harm Patient Safety Challenge, including the Know Check Ask campaign to improve patient understanding and communication with healthcare professionals about medicines.
Ciara is a medication error expert and member of the Naming Review Group for the European Medicines Agency. She is a founder member of both the Irish and International Medication Safety Networks. She is an expert adviser to the World Health Organization Patient Safety and Risk Management Unit. She has been involved in the development and delivery of the WHO Medication Without Harm Challenge and is the lead author of the WHO Medication Safety at Transitions in Care report. Ciara has post-graduate qualifications and extensive applied experience in clinical pharmacy, patient safety, risk management, quality improvement, management and leadership. She led the medication safety programme in Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, for over 10 years prior to her current national role.