Maria Donovan

Maria Donovan is a Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacy at the School of Pharmacy, University College Cork (UCC), Ireland, specializing in medication optimization for vulnerable populations including older adults and neonates.

Education:

• 2016: PhD in Pharmaceutics from University College Cork
• 2012: MPharm in Pharmacy from RCSI
• 2011: BPharm in Pharmacy from University College Cork

Research Focus: Her work bridges clinical practice and pharmacological science, with dual emphases on deprescribing interventions for frail elderly in long-term care and neonatal pharmacokinetic modeling. She develops behaviorally-informed implementation strategies for medication review systems while investigating transporter-mediated drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier in developing brains. Current projects examine antipsychotic prescribing patterns and pharmacogenetic applications in geriatric populations.

Publication Trends: Analysis of her 12 most recent publications reveals two dominant research streams: geriatric deprescribing (60% of output, 2021-2023) focusing on implementation science in long-term care, and neonatal pharmacokinetics (40%, 2014-2018) centered on bumetanide for seizure management. Both streams demonstrate consistent translational approaches from in vitro models to clinical implementation, with growing emphasis on interdisciplinary stakeholder engagement since 2020.

Scientific Awards:

• Top Downloaded Article 2017-2018 in Biopharmaceutics and Drug Disposition (Wiley, 2018)
• Irish Pharmacy News Top 100 Dynamic Pharmacists (2017)

Professional Engagement: Active in the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland and European Society of Clinical Pharmacy, she contributes to national pharmacy policy discussions while developing innovative teaching methods in clinical pharmacokinetics and therapeutics. Her experiential learning research addresses critical gaps in non-patient-facing pharmacy education placements.