Ms Kathryn Hong is a UCD Graduate Entry Medicine student who carried out her SSRA project entitled TRANSFORMING THE ASSESSMENT OF CARDIAC FIBROSIS IN PATIENTS WITH ATRIAL FIBRILLATION in Toronto, during the summer of 2020. She was a finalist in the SSRA competition, and won the Alfred Myles Smith Bursary.

Her research was carried out at three sites: the Division of Cardiology at the Schulich Heart Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and The Hull Family Cardiac Fibrillation Management Laboratory, Toronto General Hospital both in Toronto ON, Canada as well as UCD School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.

Ms Hong, her supervisor Dr Benedict Glover, and her colleagues, developed a novel technique called omnipolar mapping which overcomes the limitations of current methods of mapping the cardiac fibrosis (scarring) that may initiate and propagate atrial fibrillation. Ms Hong hoped that the technique will help us gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying AF, and improve the overall success of catheter ablation treatment.

UCD School of Medicine
Summer Student Research Awards
(SSRA) 2020
Winning Abstract and Poster 2020
Alfred Myles Bursary 2020 Competition