Why Create Know Your Flow?

Dr. Michelle Lavin is a Consultant Haematologist whose research focuses on improving care for people with bleeding disorders. Her PhD research highlighted the long delays and extensive bleeding that many people may experience prior to obtaining a diagnosis of a bleeding disorder. In addition, this work identified that many women with heavy periods failed to recognise heavy bleeding or seek help for them. Determined to educate and inform women on heavy bleeding, the concept of the know your flow website was born. Dr. Lavin works as a Principal Investigator in the ICVB, RCSI and is internationally recognised in the field of bleeding disorders, particularly Low VWF. She is a Co-Chair on the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) VWF Scientific SubCommittee (SSC) and collaborates with the ISTH Women’s Health SSC. She is a member of the European Association for Haemophilia and Allied Disorders (EAHAD) Women and Bleeding Disorders Committee. She has been an invited speaker at multiple international congresses including those of the ISTH, EAHAD, the American Society of Haematology (ASH) and the Thrombosis and Haemostasis Societies of North America (THSNA). As a result of her work for women with bleeding disorders she was awarded the Eberhard F. Mammen 2019 Young Investigator Award.

Professor O’Donnell is a Consultant Haematologist in the National Coagulation Centre, St James' Hospital, Dublin and the Professor of Vascular Biology, RCSI. He is the George Gabriel Stokes Professor of Haematology in Trinity College Dublin and Director of Irish Centre for Vascular Biology, RCSI.

Prof. O'Donnell received his medical degree from Trinity College Dublin in 1990. After internship and medical residency in Australia, he completed clinical haematology training in the Hammersmith and Royal Free Hospitals in London. In 1998, he obtained a Medical Research Council Training Fellowship, and was awarded his PhD by Imperial College London in 2001. He subsequently completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Hammermith Hospital, and was appointed as Senior Lecturer in Imperial College in 2004. He is a Fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, and the Royal College of Pathologists (UK). Following his return to Ireland in 2005, he became the first clinician scientist to receive the prestigious Science Foundation Ireland President of Ireland Young Investigator award. He is currently Professor of Vascular Biology in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Director of the Irish Centre for Vascular Biology. The Haemostasis Research laboratory led by Prof. O'Donnell has been awarded more than £12 million in peer-reviewed grant funding since 2006. His research programme in Ireland has been funded by Science Fondation Ireland, the Health Research Board (HRB), the Irish Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the National Children's Research Centre (NCRC). Prof O'Donnell's laboratory has focussed on basic research related to different aspects of vascular biology in relation to clinical bleeding and thrombosis. He has published more than 120 publications in high impact peer reviewed journals. On the basis of this research, he has also been invited to give numerous lectures at the most prestigious national and international haematology meetings, including the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting, the Gordon Coference in Hemostasis and the Congress of the International Society for Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

In 2017, leading Irish researchers came together to establish a national Irish Centre for Vascular Biology (ICVB). From its initial launch, ICVB membership already includes more than 50 Principal Investigators from 10 different academic institutions (including RCSI, QUB, TCD, UCD, DCU, UCC, NUI Galway and UU). Importantly, these researchers include doctors, basic scientists and clinician scientists from many different specialities (including Cardiology, Haematology, Neurology, Infectious Diseases, ITU medicine, Immunology, Renal, Rheumatology, Geriatrics and Obstetrics). The ICVB offers an integrated network of vascular research groups across the island of Ireland, both basic scientific and clinical researchers, in order to advance our knowledge and improve patient outcomes.