Irish Comparative Outcomes Study of Cystic Fibrosis (ICOS Study)
The Irish Comparative Outcomes Study of Cystic Fibrosis (the ICOS study), funded by the HRB, involves all the specialist paediatric centres for CF in Ireland, the Cystic Fibrosis Registry of Ireland, Cystic Fibrosis Ireland and international collaborators. This historical comparative cohort study began in 2013 with patients diagnosed since 2008 and their parents invited to partake. The first phase of the study showed improvements in hospitalisation for pulmonary exacerbations in the first 3 years of life, better growth and delayed acquisition of pseudomonas aeruginosa in the screen-detected cohort. The second phase of the study began with new HRB funding in late 2019. At this stage all data has been collected and final analysis and write-up is underway. The evaluation of clinical outcomes has beenrepeated, however this time up to an older age, with the inclusion ofthe impact of the new CFTR modulator treatment for CF. A new parental quality of life and carer burden questionnaire developed by collaborators in the University of Liverpool was used to capture parental views. Patient costs and healthcare costs were captured; the cost analysis is being conducted in cooperation with collaborators in the School of Economics UCD and in Bangor University, Wales. A European comparison of CF screening is underway, with data acquisition facilitated by the Cystic Fibrosis Registry of Ireland. The HRB funding for this study has finished, but the dissemination of this study continues.
Patricia Fitzpatrick is Full Professor of Epidemiology & Biomedical Statistics at UCD and the Principal Investigator of the ICOS Study. She was Chair of the Steering Committee of Healthy UCD from its inception in 2016 until 2023. She is Consultant in Preventative Medicine at the UCD-affiliated St Vincent’s University Hospital. She was a Board Member of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety from 2019-2025. She was a member of the Guidelines Development Group of the European Commission Initiative on Breast Cancer 2015-2025. Her research interests are disease prevention and screening.
She was recently PI on two Irish Cancer Society funded studies, the first looking at the feasibility of smoking cessation pathway for patients with cancer and the second conducting an evaluation of Irish Cancer Society cancer roadshows. Other recently completed research includes a National Cancer Control Programme-funded study of cancer awareness in the Traveller population (PI Dr Patricia Fox, UCD), international surveys of interval cancer audit in cervical and breast screening, studies of the impact of COVID-19 on cancer screening programmes in Ireland and a CSO/HRCDC facilitated study of the impact of lifestyle factors on COVID-19 outcomes.
Other current research includes the SFI-funded study on the impact of E-cigarettes on Childhood Health Outcomes (ECHO) study (PIs Prof Des Cox, UCD and Prof Carmen Regan, RCSI), a study of the impact of HPV vaccination in women attending CervicalCheck, the Irish Cervical Screening Programme, for the first time and a study of benign breast disease detected through the BreastCheck screening programme. She is a part of the PRAISE-U study team, running a pilot study of prostate screening in Ireland as part of a European-wide study organised by the European Society of Urology.