Professor Bernadette McGuinness

Professor Bernadette McGuinness graduated in medicine from Queen’s University Belfast in 1997. She trained in geriatric medicine and general internal medicine, completing specialty training in 2007. During this time, she graduated with MD for work on neuropsychological changes in Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. Prof. McGuinness was awarded the Paul Beeson Career Development Award in 2007, a prestigious award from Atlantic Philanthropies and the American Federation of Aging Research. This afforded three further years of research into mild cognitive impairment and led to a PhD. 

She currently works as Clinical Professor of Ageing within the Centre for Public Health at Queen’s University Belfast and Consultant Geriatrician in the Belfast Health & Social Care Trust.  Prof. McGuinness leads a twice weekly memory clinic within the Belfast Trust where patients with a spectrum of neurodegenerative disorders are assessed, diagnosed and followed up and a monthly Brain Health Clinic for younger patients and those with mild cognitive symptoms. From a research perspective she is especially interested in Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, Lewy Body dementia, mild cognitive impairment; she leads a research portfolio of studies in these areas.

She is Principal Investigator of the Northern Ireland Cohort of Longitudinal Ageing (NICOLA) study and leads on an NIA funded study comprehensively assessing cognition in NICOLA participants. She is NI Director of the Irish Clinical Academic Training programme (https://icatprogramme.org/).