2025-2026 Programme Participants
Robert McConkey
Robert is an experienced clinician and former healthcare inspector with a deep commitment to improving patient care, healthcare delivery, and service design. After an earlier career in the insurance industry, he retrained as a nurse and progressed to the role of Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP), where he led the development of Ireland’s first nurse-led flexible cystoscopy service for bladder cancer surveillance, a model now implemented in multiple hospitals nationwide. His interest in system-level improvement later led him to a role as a Healthcare Inspector with the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), where he assessed safety, quality, and governance across public and private hospitals.
Over the years, Robert has contributed to national cancer care policy through the National Cancer Control Programme and chaired working groups on urology nursing standards. Internationally, he served on the Board and Scientific Committee of the European Association of Urology Nurses (EAUN), earning recognition for his leadership, research, and innovation. Robert has led and co-authored several peer-reviewed studies, including research on patient enablement following ANP-led care and exploring the lived experience of marginalised patient groups. Motivated by a strong commitment to patient-centred care and a desire to move beyond identifying problems to developing practical, scalable solutions, he sees BioInnovate as the ideal environment to apply his clinical, regulatory, and systems-level experience in a new, innovation-focused context. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Practice with Prescribing, an MSc in Prostate Cancer Care, and a professional certificate in prescribing ionising radiation. Outside of work, Robert enjoys running, hiking, sea swimming, and spending time outdoors with his partner and their dog, Finn.
