Irish Life Health’s story began in 2016 when two of Ireland’s most innovative health insurers came together to create one leading health insurance provider. Our vision is to help people live healthier lives, and we now look after the health and wellbeing of over half a million people in Ireland.
Unlike traditional health insurance, we focus on keeping our members healthy. That’s why we offer more preventative benefits than any other health insurer. And when you’re not feeling well, we still have all the benefits you’d expect with fast access to the consultants, specialists and hospitals. We endeavour to provide the services and experience that you deserve.
We are part of the Irish Life Group, one of Ireland’s leading financial services companies with over 1.4 million customers. For over 80 years, it has helped people in Ireland embrace change and build better futures through its innovative products and dedication to customer care.
1. As at 1st November 2022.
Centric Health is the largest provider of primary care services in Ireland with an ever-expanding practice network, currently 75 medical clinics, located throughout the country, supported by over 250 GPs and their clinical teams.
Centric Health has 20 years’ experience providing Primary Care services in Ireland, a strong reputation has emerged as a leader in delivering a comprehensive range of integrated primary health services to all patients. Over 500,000+ patients pass through the doors annually.
Centric Health acts as a catalyst to develop centralised group practices, in line with National HSE Primary Care Strategy, by working with and bringing together established GPs in a local community.
Our Team
Dr Donal Bailey
CEO
Dr Donal Bailey has been a medical practitioner since 2009 and working in Centric Health since 2016, most recently as Director of Clinical Innovation. He is now the CEO of Care-Connect, our new care management business between Centric Health and Irish Life Health. He is a medical graduate of Trinity College Dublin, MSc Sports and Exercise Medicine 2011 from Queen Mary University London, MICGP since 2016, and Executive MBA 2017 from University College Dublin.
Megan Smith
Head of Product and Partnerships
Megan Smith started her career in healthcare, working as the only physiotherapist in a small community hospital in South Africa, covering all wards and treating all patients from ICU to paediatrics, maternity, medical, orthopaedics, and neurosurgery. She has first-hand clinical experience ranging across numerous settings and extending from lower income, rural and isolated communities to private, high-tech, state of the art facilities in global cities. Working in healthcare management and in large private insurers, Megan’s professional experience in the UK and Ireland has further expanded her knowledge and understanding of the variances in patient care and health practice from multiple perspectives. This has further fuelled her passion for creating access to healthcare, empowering patients, and delivering meaningful outcomes in sustainable and novel way. Megan also holds a Master’s Degree in Medical Science, a MBA and is currently a DBA Candidate at Swansea University Value-Based Health and Care Academy.
Aoife Coughlan PhD
Head of Operations
Aoife Coughlan graduated as a dietitian from the University of Ulster in 2009 and went on to complete her PhD in paediatric nutrition in 2012. During her career, Aoife has gained over 12 years of experience in clinical research and programme management, managing clinical research programs across Ireland's largest paediatric hospitals. In addition, she spent 3 years as a programme manager at a genomics start-up company, where she managed their rare disease programme and facilitated access to whole genome sequencing for families with rare and ultra-rare conditions. She joined Centric Health in 2020 and initially managed the HeartCare at Home heart failure remote monitoring research programme before moving to her current role on the establishment of Care-Connect.
Dr Matthew Barrett
Cardiology Clinical Advisor
Matthew Barrett is a UCD graduate who completed subspecialty training in advanced cardiovascular imaging in Northwestern Memorial Hospital Chicago. He currently works as a consultant cardiologist with a focus on community care, eHealth and chronic disease management between St Vincent’s Healthcare Group and HSE Community Health Organisation 6.
He is the lead for the Irish arm of the PASSION-HF research consortium focusing on development of technological solutions to heart failure care, and is lead investigator in multiple ongoing clinical trials in automated delivery of guideline-directed HF therapies. He is also involved in development of HF monitoring hardware.
His special areas of interest include advanced cardiac imaging, heart failure, and use of eHealth in chronic disease management, and he has published on the use of biomarkers and home monitoring solutions in heart failure care.
Ciara Mathews
Clinical Nurse Lead
Ciara Mathews is our nurse lead for Care-Connect and has over 15 years’ experience working in the acute hospital setting. After graduating from Waterford I.T with a BSc in General Nursing, she emigrated to Canada, where she worked on an acute medical cardiology ward. Once she returned home, she has worked in various hospital settings before settling in the Emergency Dept. Ciara made the move to Centric to work as the nurse lead with the Heart Failure programme and now leads the programme with Care-Connect.
Board
