Louise Gibson graduated from UCC in 1993, and training posts included Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, Dublin,  the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne and the King Edward Memorial Hospital/Pincess Margaret Hospital in Perth.  She completed her CCST in 2003 and following this completed an MSc in Community Child Health at Warwick University while working in a research post at Enable Ireland, Cork.  She has worked as a Consultant Community Paediatrician at the Mercy Hospital in Cork since 2006 and completed her Medical Doctorate in University College Cork in 2010.  She commenced in the role of Senior Lecturer/Consultant Community Paediatrician at Cork University Hospital in May 2010.Dr. Gibson is a member of the British Association of Community Paediatricians (BACCH), British Association of Childhood Disability (BACD) and the Association of Research in Infant and Child Development (ARICD).  She is a reviewer for Child Care Health and Development (journal of BACCH) and will shortly complete training as a Griffith's Mental Development scales tutor. 

Dr. Gibson has maintained strong links with research at Enable Ireland Cork, where the Southern Ireland Cerebral Palsy register has been maintained for over 30 years, providing a focus for epidemiological study of CP at both a national and international level, through collaboration with Survey of Cerebral Palsy in Europe (SCPE).  As well as epidemiological research, SCPE are conducting ongoing work on evaluating best practice in clinical issues in CP management.She has an active clinical and research interest in child development, and is a collaborator on the HRB funded study of neurodevelopmental outcome of children with HIE at five years of age, a study led by Dr. Deirdre Murray/Senior Lecturer in the Department of Paediatrics, UCC.  In addition, she is a collaborator on the NOTES study, a national collaborative study of the neurodevelopmental outcome of twin with discordant growth.  This study is led by Dr. Cecilie Halling and Dr. David Corcoran at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.Quality of life, pain and parental stress in cerebral palsy are research interests also, and were the subject of her MD thesis and MSc dissertation.  This research was conducted through an EU funded multi-centre collaborative project called SPARCLE.  A second SPARCLE project has just been completed across Europe as a follow-up of the initial participants.  The specific area of pain evaluation in children with CP has been allocated to Enable Ireland, Cork.

In her role as Senior Lecturer in Community Paediatrics, Dr. Gibson will be developing student teaching in the community as part of the Fourth Year undergraduate medical curriculum.  The aim of this is to enhance student understanding of community services for children, particularly in the area of Early Intervention.  This will include the establishment of a child developmental screening clinic at the NICHE project in Hollyhill, Cork.