From The Archive - Dr Clare Quigley

Dr Clare Quigley, winner of the 2017 John Henahan Prize The winner of this year’s John Henahan Prize is Dr Clare Quigley. Dr Quigley is a third-year Resident at Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. The winning entry was on the topic of How does commercial interest affect my career? Emanuel Rosen, chief medical editor of EuroTimes and chairman of the judging panel, said all the submissions were of the highest quality, making selection of a winner extremely difficult. “For the first time we drew up a shortlist of five entries from which we would choose the eventual winner,” said Dr Rosen. “The shortlisted essays were published in EuroTimes, and anybody who read them will see what a difficult decision the judges had to make. But in the end, there could be only one winner, and Dr Clare Quigley is a very worthy recipient of the 2017 John Henahan Prize,” he said. Dr Rosen was joined on the judging panel by Thomas Kohnen, chairman of the ESCRS Publications Committee; José Güell, former president of the ESCRS; Oliver Findl, chairman of the ESCRS Young Ophthalmologists Committee; Sean Henahan, editor of EuroTimes; Paul McGinn, editor of EuroTimes; and Robert Henahan, contributing editor of EuroTimes. Dr Quigley received a travel bursary worth €1,000 to attend the XXXV Congress of the ESCRS, and a special trophy was presented at the Video Awards Session yesterday. Dr Quigley, from Limerick, Ireland, studied medicine in Trinity College Dublin. There she received the prestigious undergraduate award, Foundation Scholarship, in the third year of her studies. She then carried out an intercalated Molecular Medicine MSc, and completed her Master’s thesis project in Strasbourg, France. Her thesis examined properties of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, which entrain circadian rhythms. She graduated from medicine in 2014. She is interested in cataract surgery, and aims to complete specialist registrar training in Ireland prior to a subspecialist fellowship abroad. After she qualifies, she hopes to work in Ireland in a university hospital, providing ophthalmic surgical care and training junior ophthalmologists. Her interests include hiking, swimming, cycling, and reading. “Writing for the John Henahan Prize was a rewarding experience – my medical writing has thus far been scientific, and ordered into abstract-friendly sections. It was engaging to write in a less restricted way about commercial interests, which we all encounter,” said Dr Quigley. “It’s an honour to have my essay chosen for the prize, and I’m especially delighted as I do very much enjoy writing, of scientific and other varieties.” The Henahan prize is named in honour of John Henahan, who edited EuroTimes from 1996 to 2001. “John’s work has inspired a generation of young doctors and journalists, many of whom continue to work for EuroTimes. The prize will not only bring satisfaction to the winner and credit to all the contributors, but may enhance all their prospects of pursuing a medical writing aspect to their future careers. We look forward to their further contributions to EuroTimes and the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery,” said Dr Rosen. Details of next year’s competition will be announced in the coming months.