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 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

 

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

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...

An evaluation of eye tracking technology in the assessment of 12 lead electrocardiography interpretation

Journal Article
Breen, C. J., Bond, R., & Finlay, D. (2014)
An evaluation of eye tracking technology in the assessment of 12 lead electrocardiography interpretation. Journal of Electrocardiology, 47(6), 922-929. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2014.08.008
Introduction This study investigated eye tracking technology for 12 lead electrocardiography interpretation to Healthcare Scientist students. Methods Participants (n = 33) in...

Assessing computerized eye tracking technology for gaining insight into expert interpretation of the 12-lead electrocardiogram: an objective quantitative approach

Journal Article
Bond, R., Zhu, T., Finlay, D., Drew, B., Kligfield, P., Guldenring, D., …Clifford, G. (2014)
Assessing computerized eye tracking technology for gaining insight into expert interpretation of the 12-lead electrocardiogram: an objective quantitative approach. Journal of Electrocardiology, 47(6), 895-906. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2014.07.011
Introduction It is well known that accurate interpretation of the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) requires a high degree of skill. There is also a moderate degree of variabili...

Recording a standard 12 - lead electrocardiogram. An approved methodology by the Society of Cardiological Science and Technology (SCST). Clinical guidelines by consensus.

Other
Baxter, S., Blackman, S., Breen, C., Brown, C., Campbell, B., Cox, C., …Ross, C. (2014)
Recording a standard 12 - lead electrocardiogram. An approved methodology by the Society of Cardiological Science and Technology (SCST). Clinical guidelines by consensus

The effects of electrode misplacement on clinicians’ interpretation of the standard 12-lead electrocardiogram

Journal Article
Bond, R., Finlay, D., Nugent, C., Breen, C., Guldenring, D., & Daly, M. (2012)
The effects of electrode misplacement on clinicians’ interpretation of the standard 12-lead electrocardiogram. European Journal of Internal Medicine, 23(7), 610-615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2012.03.011
Introduction This study investigates how a particular incorrect electrode configuration affects the 12-lead Electrocardiogram (ECG). Methods A correct and an incorrect 12-lea...

Evaluation of a direct access cardiac arrhythmia monitoring service

Journal Article
Skipsey, D. A., Dawson, F. M., Breen, C., & Leslie, S. J. (2012)
Evaluation of a direct access cardiac arrhythmia monitoring service. Cardiology, 19(1), 70-75. https://doi.org/10.5603/CJ.2012.0010
Background: This paper describes the clinical outcomes from a novel direct access arrhythmia monitoring service. Methods: The study was carried out in the north of Scotland....

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.