Leonora O'Brien

Last updated

Leonora O'Brien is an Irish pharmacist and entrepreneur. [1] [2] [3] Having worked in pharmacy regulation, [1] she was the founder and chief executive officer of Pharmapod, [4] [1] [5] a cloud-platform for pharmacists and physicians to monitor safety of dispensing processes and drive the safe dispensing of medicines. [6] [7] [8] [2] [3] O'Brien has won a number of awards [3] for her business endeavours and is a leading voice in the field of women in business. [9] [10] [11] [12] [4] [13]

Contents

Early life and career

O'Brien was born in Castlerea, County Roscommon. [8] O'Brien qualified as a pharmacist. [9] She worked in pharmacy regulation and policy development in both Ireland and the European Union. [8] She moved out of Pharmacy regulation into the private sector in 2012, having noticed a gap in the market for inter-pharmacy interaction. [3] [1] [14]

Pharmapod

O'Brien developed the business case for Pharmapod in the 12-week-long LaunchPad entrepreneur hub at the National Digital Research Centre (NDRC) in Dublin in early 2012. [15] O'Brien founded Pharmapod in November 2012, as an online tool which assists pharmaceutical dispensaries (including doctors) [11] to keep track of and report anomalies, which can cause fatalities. [3] [6] By 2014, Pharmapod was operating in Ireland, the UK (in a deal with the NHS) [6] and Kenya (a focus was put on the developing world, where the product was considered very useful, especially with a view to capturing trends in counterfeit medicines), [16] with an employee base of 10 people. [16] [8] Seeking up to €5 million in December 2014, [17] by the end of 2017, Pharmapod had raised over €1.8 million in capital, with both institutional and angel investors. [2]

Awards and prizes

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pharmacist</span> Healthcare professional

A pharmacist, also known as a chemist in Commonwealth English, is a healthcare professional who is knowledgeable about preparation, mechanism of action, clinical usage and legislation of medications in order to dispense them safely to the public and to provide consultancy services. A pharmacist also often serves as a primary care provider in the community and offers services, such as health screenings and immunizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pharmacy</span> Clinical health science

Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links health sciences with pharmaceutical sciences and natural sciences. The professional practice is becoming more clinically oriented as most of the drugs are now manufactured by pharmaceutical industries. Based on the setting, pharmacy practice is either classified as community or institutional pharmacy. Providing direct patient care in the community of institutional pharmacies is considered clinical pharmacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medical prescription</span> Health-care communication from a physician to a pharmacist

A prescription, often abbreviated ℞ or Rx, is a formal communication from a physician or other registered healthcare professional to a pharmacist, authorizing them to dispense a specific prescription drug for a specific patient. Historically, it was a physician's instruction to an apothecary listing the materials to be compounded into a treatment—the symbol ℞ comes from the first word of a medieval prescription, Latin recipe, that gave the list of the materials to be compounded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edna O'Brien</span> Irish writer (1930–2024)

Josephine Edna O'Brien was an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short-story writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pharmacy technician</span> Licensed health care provider well-versed in pharmacy

A pharmacy technician (PhT) performs pharmacy-related functions including but not limited to filling out prescription medications. Training, certification, licensing, and actual practice of pharmacy technicians varies not only worldwide but in some countries regionally as well as by employer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apothecary</span> Former name for a pharmacist

Apothecary is an archaic English term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica (medicine) to physicians, surgeons and patients. The modern terms 'pharmacist' and 'chemist' have taken over this role.

A veterinary pharmacist is a specially trained pharmacist who dispenses veterinary drugs and supplies or products and advice to owners of companion animals and livestock. In addition, they advise the regulatory bodies and are involved in the formulation of veterinary drugs. Veterinary pharmacy is a field of pharmacy practice, in which veterinary pharmacists may compound medications, fill prescriptions, and manage drug therapies for animals. Veterinary pharmacists are licensed pharmacists who specialize in the distribution of medications for animals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pharmacy (shop)</span> Shop that provides pharmaceutical drugs

A pharmacy is a premises which provides pharmaceutical drugs, among other products. At the pharmacy, a pharmacist oversees the fulfillment of medical prescriptions and is available to counsel patients about prescription and over-the-counter drugs or about health problems and wellness issues. A typical pharmacy would be in the commercial area of a community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boots (company)</span> British multinational pharmacy store chain

Boots UK Limited is a British health and beauty retailer and pharmacy chain that operates in the United Kingdom. It also operates internationally, including Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Thailand and Indonesia.

Angela Benton is an American businesswoman. Benton founded NewME (acquired), the first startup accelerator for minorities globally in 2011. She is a pioneer of diversity and one of the most important African-Americans in the technology industry. She has helped minority-led tech companies raise over $47 million in venture capital funding.

iDonate

iDonate is an online fundraising platform for charities and non profit organisations in Ireland. It was launched in 2011, and available to charities, nonprofit organisations and crowdfunders in Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telepharmacy</span> Pharmacy care by telecommunication

Telepharmacy is the delivery of pharmaceutical care via telecommunications to patients in locations where they may not have direct contact with a pharmacist. It is an instance of the wider phenomenon of telemedicine, as implemented in the field of pharmacy. Telepharmacy services include drug therapy monitoring, patient counseling, prior authorization and refill authorization for prescription drugs, and monitoring of formulary compliance with the aid of teleconferencing or videoconferencing. Remote dispensing of medications by automated packaging and labeling systems can also be thought of as an instance of telepharmacy. Telepharmacy services can be delivered at retail pharmacy sites or through hospitals, nursing homes, or other medical care facilities.

Margaret E. Ward is a well-known entrepreneur, journalist and broadcaster based in Dublin, Ireland. She has worked in The Irish Times, Sunday Times and as a presenter on Newstalk radio She's currently CEO of Clear Eye https://cleareye.ie/.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silicon Docks</span> Area in Dublin, Ireland

Silicon Docks is a nickname for the area in Dublin, Ireland around Grand Canal Dock, stretching to the IFSC, city centre east, and city centre south near the Grand Canal. The nickname makes reference to Silicon Valley, and was adopted because of the concentration of European headquarters of high-tech companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Indeed,Google,Twitter, and startups in the area. The number of tech professionals working in technology firms in the area is about 7,000.

Pharmacy in the United Kingdom has been an integral part of the National Health Service since it was established in 1948. Unlike the rest of the NHS, pharmacies are largely privately provided apart from those in hospitals, and even these are now often privately run.

Kastus Technologies is an Irish multinational nanotechnology company that specialises in patented, visible-light-activated, photocatalytic, antimicrobial coatings. These coatings prevent the growth of bacteria on surfaces such as ceramics, glass, and touchscreens, with no negative side effects for the end user. Founded in Dublin in 2014, Kastus’ antimicrobial coatings were in development for over 10 years as part of a collaboration with Dublin Institute of Technology and the Advanced Materials and Bio Engineering Research (AMBER) Centres.

Kinesense is computer vision and video analytics company based in Dublin, Ireland. The company is one of largest suppliers of computer vision products to the UK police, who use the technology to search CCTV content in the course of criminal investigations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Scanlon</span> Irish entrepreneur

Patricia Scanlon is an Irish technologist and businesswoman. She founded SoapBox Labs in 2013, a company that applies artificial intelligence to develop speech recognition applications that are specifically tuned to children's voices. Scanlon was CEO of SoapBox Labs from its founding until May 2021, when she became executive chair. In 2022, Scanlon was appointed by the Irish Government as Ireland’s first Artificial Intelligence Ambassador. In this role, she will "lead a national conversation" about the role of AI in people's lives, including its benefits and risks.

Silicon Republic (domain:SiliconRepublic.com) is an Irish technology news website, founded by Ann O'Dea and Darren McAuliffe in 2001. It has been honoured at the Irish Web Awards.

Dogpatch Labs is a startup and innovation hub situated in the Silicon Docks area of Dublin. The company's headquarters are located in the CHQ building. Dogpatch Labs consists of over 500 members from 100+ startups.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 O'Dea, Ann (11 March 2014). "Women Invent: 100 top women in science, technology, engineering and maths – Part 1". Silicon Republic. Archived from the original on 28 August 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 Keogh, Olive (25 August 2016). "New Innovators: Starting up and keeping going...Irish entrepreneurial spirit alive and kicking". Irish Times .
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Doyle, Carmel (9 July 2013). "Irish start-up Pharmapod on mission to bring pharmacies into the digital age". Silicon Republic. Archived from the original on 1 November 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  4. 1 2 Huang, Gregory T. (3 November 2014). "Dublin's Startup Commish Brings Lesson in Buzz From NYC". Xconomy. Archived from the original on 6 November 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  5. 1 2 "CEOs, entrepreneurs, and managers short--listed for Image businesswoman of year awards". Irish Independent . 29 October 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 4 O'Donoghue, Paul (28 September 2014). "Irish tech girls rule, ok?". Irish Independent . Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  7. ↑ Dromey, Trish (13 May 2013). "Pharmapod has its eye on EU expansion". Irish Examiner . Archived from the original on 19 June 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Entrepreneur pharmacist is driven by patient safety". Irish independent . 24 June 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  9. 1 2 "Offering support to ladies who launch" . The Times . 15 January 2017.
  10. ↑ Bushnell, Niamh (17 February 2017). "Notes From The Commish: Women, tech and hell". DublinGlobe. Archived from the original on 27 February 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017– via IrishCentral.
  11. 1 2 Sweeney, Tanya (16 April 2015). "Are women really as powerful in Irish business as we think?". Irish Independent .
  12. ↑ "Solving gender gap in tech will help fix skill shortage". Irish Times . 25 September 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  13. ↑ "Clinicians wanted for health tech start-up programme" . Irish Medical Times . 10 January 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  14. ↑ Newenham, Pamela (23 November 2015). "Conference for female entrepreneurs on funding". Irish Times . Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  15. 1 2 "26 outstanding start-ups that smash the 'boys' club' stereotype". Silicon Republic. 17 February 2016. Archived from the original on 1 July 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  16. 1 2 3 4 "VIDEO: Kilkenny Group CEO named IMAGE Businesswoman of the Year 2014". Newstalk. 25 November 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  17. ↑ McCabe, Sarah (7 December 2014). "Pharmapod plans to raise up to €5m from new investors". irish Independent . Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  18. ↑ Hunt, Gordon (9 February 2017). "Irish founder of Theya Healthcare makes Cartier award shortlist". Silicon Republic. Archived from the original on 9 February 2017.
  19. ↑ Armstrong, John (13 April 2017). "Irish Entrepreneur Named Laureate For Europe At 2017 Cartier Women's Initiative Awards". "Irish Tech News". Archived from the original on 16 April 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.