Read the Conversation
Conversation highlights:
- Transformative Collaborations: Leading partnerships, driving Ireland's position in data-driven research and real-world evidence.
- AI-Powered Healthcare Innovation: Enabling secure Electronic Medical Record insights and GDPR-compliant data sharing while maintaining full sovereignty.
- People-First Culture: Creating a connected, empowered workplace where innovation thrives through collaboration.
- Decade of System Transformation: Demonstrating enduring commitment to evidence-driven health innovation.
EF: How have IQVIA's services evolved over the years, and what strategic collaborations have been most significant in driving that transformation?
GM: IQVIA is a leading global provider of clinical research services, commercial insights, and healthcare intelligence to the life sciences and healthcare industries and is dedicated to delivering actionable insights and accelerating innovations. Present in Ireland since 1990, IQVIA pioneered the country as a hub for clinical research and now supports the full spectrum of healthcare innovation - from Research & Development (R&D) to commercialisation, and from clinical trials to real-world evidence and digital transformation. Our offerings span Clinical Research Organisation services, pharmacovigilance, technology and analytics, consulting, market intelligence, medical communications, and regulatory engagement. Increasingly, these services are interwoven to deliver end-to-end solutions that support innovation and improve patient outcomes.
Strategic collaborations remain central to our approach. We co-create with stakeholders across academia, life sciences, hospitals, and healthcare professionals to unlock the power of data and drive meaningful change. Initiatives such as DataScape, Digital Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research in Europe (DIGICORE), Synthetic Healthcare Data Governance Hub (SEARCH), and Precision Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) exemplify this ethos.
DataScape, a national research initiative led by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and supported by FutureNeuro, focuses on building public trust in the secondary use of health data. The project explores stakeholder perspectives - including patients, clinicians, and data governance experts on how health data can be ethically and transparently used for research and care improvement. IQVIA’s investment reflects its commitment to shaping a safe, inclusive, and privacy-conscious data ecosystem in Ireland, aligned with its broader strategy to enable real-world evidence and digital health innovation.
IQVIA is one of many industry partners of the €10M Precision ALS consortium, which represents a multi-national, multi-disciplinary effort to transform research and care for ALS. Bringing together clinicians, data scientists, technologists, and industry partners, the initiative is developing a modular, GDPR-compliant platform that integrates multimodal data, including clinical records, imaging, genomics, and remote monitoring, to support precision medicine approaches in ALS. IQVIA has committed €1.5M in research funding through collaboration with the ADAPT Centre and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Spoke Project. Separately, IQVIA has partnered with TRICALS (Treatment Research Initiative to Cure ALS), the largest European research initiative aimed at finding a cure for ALS. This collaboration combines TRICALS’ scientific leadership and extensive site network with IQVIA’s data, science, and operational capabilities to accelerate the development of new treatments. A cornerstone of this collaboration is the Multi-Adaptive Global Network of ALS Clinical Trials initiative, which offers a full-service framework for conducting Phase II and III ALS trials efficiently and cost-effectively.
IQVIA Ireland is a founding participant in the ALIGN Consortium, a collaborative public-private collaboration designed to transform cancer care in Ireland. Inspired by Norway’s “Connect” model, ALIGN brings together clinical, academic, and industry partners to address some of the most pressing challenges in oncology through innovation, data-driven solutions, and integrated care pathways.
IQVIA Ireland is an industry partner of the SEARCH Consortium, coordinated by Trinity College Dublin and funded by the Innovative Health Initiative. The consortium was awarded €15 million over four years to develop and validate a biomedical data generation and sharing solution, with a particular focus on synthetic data models. The initiative aims to address key challenges in data accessibility and privacy by creating secure, scalable synthetic datasets that can be used for research, innovation, and regulatory purposes without compromising patient confidentiality. IQVIA is shaping both the technical and ethical pillars of SEARCH. The company’s expertise in data curation, harmonisation, privacy-preserving analytics, and ethics guidance is central to the project’s mission: enabling secure, federated access to high-quality synthetic health data for research, clinical innovation, and public health.
IQVIA continues to play a leading role in DIGICORE, a pan-European oncology research network spanning 18 countries and over 38 cancer centres. We are driving digital interoperability and the adoption of Minimal Essential Description of Cancer across clinical records to enable privacy-preserving, federated analytics. In Ireland, Trinity St James’s Cancer Institute and the University of Limerick Hospital Group are actively contributing to this transformation, with other hospitals exploring membership. These collaborations are accelerating the generation of real-world evidence and aligning with national strategies such as the eHealth Hub for Cancer and DataScape, reinforcing Ireland’s position as a leader in data-driven cancer research.
Our footprint in oncology continues to expand through strategic collaborations and infrastructure development, including support for early-phase trials at the START Centre in Dublin. We are actively working to integrate additional clinical research facilities and explore a unified oncology research network that strengthens trial delivery and accelerates innovation. These efforts are part of a broader commitment to embed clinical research as a care option in Ireland - an approach well-documented to improve patient outcomes. Our ambition to establish Ireland as a future IQVIA Prime Site, a clinical trial institute or network that is committed to long-term relationships with IQVIA to improve and innovate clinical trial delivery, reflects this vision. We hope to create a hub for clinical excellence that enables faster trial activation, data-driven insights, and collaborative research across therapeutic areas. We are proud to support the All-Island Cancer Data Strategy through our work with the eHealth Hub for Cancer, Queen’s University Belfast, and other stakeholders. Our contributions span data interoperability, privacy-enhancing technologies, and alignment with European Health Data Space (EHDS) standards. IQVIA’s Privacy Analytics Platform and OMOP Common Data Model are central to these efforts, enabling secure, standardised data sharing for research and care optimization.
These collaborations are not just transactional - they’re transformational. They reflect our belief that innovation thrives when industry, academia, and government work together. IQVIA Ireland is proud to be at the forefront of this movement, driving health innovation through trusted collaborations, cutting-edge technology, and a shared commitment to better outcomes.
EF: How are AI and big data transforming IQVIA's approach to sustainability and innovation, and what impact are these technologies having on the healthcare industry?
GM: AI and big data are fundamentally reshaping life sciences and healthcare, and they sit at the core of IQVIA’s sustainability and innovation strategy. IQVIA’s AI-powered solutions -including Natural Language Processing (NLP), federated learning, and machine learning decision support and increasingly agentic AI are being deployed to improve diagnostics, streamline and accelerate clinical trials, and personalise care at scale. Agentic AI, in particular, enables greater autonomy across complex workflows, orchestrating data and insights to support faster, more informed decision-making while reducing inefficiencies across the system.
From predictive modelling to digital twins, these technologies are reshaping how we understand disease, optimise trials, and personalise care. Ireland’s early adoption of digital health tools positions us to lead in this space, and we are committed to supporting that journey. IQVIA Ireland’s strategic collaboration with Centric Health exemplifies our commitment to co-creating trusted, privacy-first solutions that align with the EHDS. Through the deployment of a multi-layered NLP stack within Centric’s secure Microsoft Fabric environment, we are enabling structured insights from unstructured EMR data to support population health, clinical research, and surveillance. This architecture ensures full data sovereignty and GDPR compliance.
In 2023, IQVIA announced its collaboration with NHS England on the NHS-Privacy Enhanced Technology programme to ensure the protection of data within the Federated Data Platform (FDP). IQVIA’s industry-leading privacy analytics solutions will enable data to be safely accessed while enhancing privacy across the FDP and wider NHS data ecosystem.
EF: What has been your approach to building and sustaining a strong company culture at IQVIA, especially in such a dynamic industry?
GM: At IQVIA Ireland, we are proud of our culture and our commitment to talent development, which reflects our global mission to accelerate innovation for a healthier world. Our vision is to be the partner of choice for the life sciences and healthcare sectors, and our values - Passion, Collaboration, Innovation, Growth- are our guide to how we work, lead, and grow together.
We’ve grown our team to over 400 professionals in Ireland, many of whom contribute to global clinical research operations. Culture is not an afterthought - it’s a strategic imperative. We invest in building skillsets that match the pace of innovation, while fostering an environment where all perspectives thrive. Our competency framework defines the behaviours and mindsets needed to deliver on our strategy, including anticipating future barriers, taking initiative, and motivating ourselves and others to perform at a high level.
Our Career Ambassadors initiative, now active across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, is a cornerstone of our talent strategy. It empowers employees to explore career paths, share personal stories, and connect across borders. In Ireland, we’ve adapted this model to reflect local needs, encouraging cross-functional engagement and showcasing the breadth of opportunities within IQVIA. The programme is designed to inspire peers, advocate for roles, and promote team identity. It’s about building a connected community where employees feel seen, supported, and inspired.
We also believe that connected intelligence applies not only to data but to people. Connecting ideas, experiences, and opportunities is how we grow as an organization. Our Connected Talent Programme and Career Connections platform uses AI to match employees with internal opportunities based on their skills and interests, supporting mobility and career progression.
In Ireland, we continue to build on this foundation. From onboarding and induction improvements to local engagement, social committee initiatives, and the introduction of IQVIA Days, we are creating a workplace where people feel connected, empowered, and proud to contribute. Our IQVIA volunteering Days have included a coastal clean-up in Dublin, a Harbour-to-Harbour charity walk supporting Childhood Cancer Ireland, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics outreach in schools. Our culture is our differentiator - and it’s how we deliver on our mission every day.
EF: Looking back on your decade of leadership at IQVIA, what are the key moments and achievements you're most proud of, and what lessons have shaped your journey?
GM: After nearly a decade as General Manager, I’m proud of how IQVIA Ireland has evolved - from pioneering clinical research to shaping national data strategies and advancing life sciences and healthcare innovation. Our work is helping shape the future of healthcare, and our impact is increasingly visible in how we support system reform, enable data-driven decision-making, and foster public-private collaboration.
I’ve had many defining moments throughout this journey. It was great to hear the response from a medical lead after seeing the impact of IQVIA’s digital clinical platform, which was used to enable cohort stratification and population health planning for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients delivered across 75 practices. Since this programme, the practices have seen an overall 81% increase in additional COPD patients to be considered for coding to the register, with 2064 new patients consulted in nurse-led clinics - a powerful reminder of how data and technology can drive better outcomes.
Signing strategic collaborations with clinical research facilities to bring more trials to Ireland, formalising HealthTech Ireland’s collaboration with the Health Service Executive through a Memorandum of Understanding, and being a founding member of the ALIGN consortium have all been pivotal steps in strengthening Ireland’s innovation and research ecosystem.
I’m equally proud of our contributions to oncology and chronic disease pathways - from supporting the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes accreditation to advancing the cancer data strategy in collaboration with the eHealth Hub for Cancer and Queen’s University Belfast. Our analysis of anti-obesity medicines has demonstrated positive cardiovascular outcomes, reinforcing the clinical value of these therapies. At the same time, our registry platform continues to empower patient advocacy groups - providing them with actionable insights and data-driven tools to champion better care, influence policy, and improve outcomes. These efforts reflect IQVIA’s enduring commitment to advancing health through evidence, innovation, and collaboration.
The lessons? Stay curious. Lead with empathy. And never underestimate the impact of a well-connected, goal-aligned team. Collaboration is our greatest asset - whether with hospitals, regulators, research centres, or community partners. Our proudest achievements have come not from working alone, but from working together.
