Clinical Ophthalmology

Dr. Coakley graduated in Medicine from University College Cork (UCC), and is a Consultant Ophthalmologist at Cork University Hospital, Ireland; the only Level 1 Trauma Centre in the Country. He specialises in (Medical Retina) and helped establish the Diabetic Retinal Treatment Centre in southern Ireland, serving a population of approximately 700,000 people. He is the National Referral Outcome Grader for Ireland’s National Diabetic Retinal Screening Programme. Dr. Coakley is a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of Ophthalmologists, and is a Fellow of the European Board of Ophthalmologists.

He is actively involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and has lectured in ophthalmology, surgery, and anatomy for UCC, The University of Limerick (UL), and The Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI). As well as this, he has taught anatomy to medical device engineers for some of the largest Biomedical companies in the world.

As manager of the ASSERT Surgical Skills Laboratory at UCC, Dr. Coakley organised and oversaw national and international cadaveric based surgical training days in a wide range of surgical specialities including vascular, cardiothoracic, gastrointestinal, orthopaedic, plastic and reconstructive, and otorhinolaryngology surgery. All of these courses were the first of their kind to be held in Ireland. He has also hosted research days for some of the biggest medical device companies in the world. The ASSERT Centre is a state-of-the-art healthcare training facility compromising six fully equipped operating theatres with the ability to accommodate cadaveric specimens, the only one of its kind in the Republic of Ireland.

Dr. Coakley actively partakes in research and was awarded a Master of Science degree in Tissue Engineering from University of Limerick following two years of full-time laboratory-based research. He has authored several publications in high index peer reviewed international medical journals and presented his research internationally. He won the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland Registrars Prize based on this research. Dr. Coakley functions regularly as a peer reviewer for several international medical journals. In 2019, he completed a master’s degree in Medical Education Research at University College Cork. This involved the evaluation of an interactive three-dimensional digital platform in the instruction of ophthalmic anatomy. Dr. Coakley is currently involved in multicentre international research studies with some of the largest medical companies in the world.