Dr Sinead Duggan

Biography

Sinéad Duggan joined the Aberdeen Centre for Evaluation (ACE) as a Senior Research Fellow in Evidence Synthesis in August 2026. Prior to this, she worked as a Research Fellow with the Aberdeen-Belfast Evidence Collaboration (ABEC) from January 2024.

Her research focuses on evidence synthesis to support healthcare decision-making and policy. She has contributed to systematic reviews across a range of clinical and public health areas, including biomarkers for sepsis, supplemental imaging for breast cancer detection, risk stratification for breast cancer screening, and artificial intelligence-assisted histopathology for prostate cancer. Her methodological experience includes diagnostic test accuracy reviews, prognostic factor and prognostic model reviews, prevalence reviews, and intervention reviews.

Prior to her work in evidence synthesis, Sinéad was a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Surgery at Trinity College Dublin, where she managed a research team and conducted research in areas including acute and chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, osteoporosis, bone metabolism, malnutrition, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, and type 3c diabetes.

Before moving into academic research, she worked for eight years as a clinical dietitian in a university teaching hospital in Dublin across a range of medical and surgical specialties.

External Memberships

Registered with HCPC

Registered with Coru (Ireland)

Member of Irish Nutrition & Dietetics Institute

Member of Pancreatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland

Member of the European Pancreas Club

Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (FHEA)

Prizes and Awards

Cuthbertson Medal 2016 from the Nutrition Society

Irish Nutrition & Dietetics Institute (INDI) Researcher of the Year (2016)

Honorary Lifetime Member of the Nutrition Interest Group of the Pancreatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland (PSGBI)

Research Overview

Evidence synthesis

Research Methodology

Review methodology

Studies Within a Review

Breast cancer supplemental screening 

AI in prostate cancer diagnosis

Biomarkers for sepsis

Risk stratification for breast cancer screening

Nutrition

Pancreatic disease

Chronic pancreatitis

Acute pancreatitis

Pancreatic cancer

Pancreatogenic (type 3c) diabetes

Bone metabolism

Malnutriton and deficiency

Knowledge Exchange

Sinéad has a particular interest in evidence synthesis methodology. She was a founding member of the Ireland GRADE Network and served as its Northern Ireland representative during her time at Queen's University Belfast. She is also a member of the GRADE Working Group. Her methodological interests include Studies Within a Review (SWARs), and she was awarded funding from Evidence Synthesis Ireland to conduct a SWAR examining approaches for communicating systematic review findings to the public. She also established a communications network across the NIHR-funded Evidence Synthesis Groups.