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Staff Profile

Dr Diarmuid Coughlan

Research Associate

  • Email: diarmuid.coughlan@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: 0191 208 7905
  • Address: Population Health Sciences Institute
    Faculty of Medical Sciences
    Newcastle University
    Baddiley-Clark Building,
    Richardson Road,
    Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4AX, UK.
Background

Diarmuid joined the Population Health Sciences Institute in September 2017 as a Research Associate. He is part of the Health Economics Group (HEG) under the leadership of Prof. Luke Vale. Much of  Diarmuid's work is in Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and in particular economic evaluation of cancer drugs, diagnostics and service delivery programmes.

Diarmuid was a Post-Doctoral Fellow on the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program (2015-17) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. A qualified pharmacist, Diarmuid's research focus was primarily on patterns-of-care in cancer patients. At the NCI, Diarmuid worked with the Surveillance Research Program, Healthcare Delivery Program and the Metabolic Epidemiology Branch. He collaborated with the the NCI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on physical activity research projects related to premature mortality and healthcare costs which was featured in the New York Times (June 2021)

Diarmuid has a Masters in Health Economics from the University of York (2008-9) a Research Masters in Pharmacy Practice from University College Cork (2010) and completed the SpHERE programme in Health Services Research in Ireland (2010). His PhD Fellowship was supported by the Irish Health Research Board (HRB) in conjunction with the NCI. This  afforded him the opportunity to study at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, based in the Department of Health Policy and Management (2010-2012).His PhD thesis awarded by the National University of Ireland, Galway (2014) was entitled: 'Economic Essays on Burden, Survivorship and Health Literacy - A Focus on Head and Neck Cancers in the HPV-era'. Upon completing his PhD, Diarmuid worked as a Teaching Fellow at the Institute of Health & Society, Newcastle University (2014-15).

Since returning to Newcastle, Diarmuid has been involved in various functions within the HEG. These include serving as part of the Evidence Assessment Group (EAG) reviewing NICE reimbursement dossiers, writing successful grants and presented at conferences. In 2021, Diarmuid helped orgainse the Methods of Economic Evaluation of Diagnostics (MEED) virtual conference which had over 100 delegates from 14 countries.

Diarmuid has worked in hospital and community pharmacy in England, Australia, United States and his native Ireland. 

Research

Diarmuid's research interests include the economics of cancer care, health service delivery and survivorship. He has experience in econometrics analysis, economic evaluation and Health Technology Assessment (HTA).

For students interested in supervision, please do get in touch! In the last few years, I have supervised Masters students in various epidemiology and economics of cancer-related topics. This year, I have an project on repurpose medicines (with Sola Akinbolade, NIHR Innovation Observatory). 

Diarmuid was an Associate Editor of BMC Health Services Research journal (2018-2020). Peer-reviewer for many journals!

For up-to-date research profile - see ORCID profile or Scopus profile




Teaching

For 2022-23, Diarmuid is the module leader for the Practical Health Economics for Cancer (ONC8028) which is part of the Masters in Oncology and Palliative Care. The module covers the fundamental principles of health economics, economic evaluation and market access. 

Diarmuid also has assisted on the following courses:

  • MSc in Public Health and Health Services Research
  • Undergraduate Medical Training Program

Publications