Professor Higgins is the Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) and the Head of College of Medicine & Health at UCC.
A native of Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, Professor Higgins graduated from the medical school of Trinity College Dublin in 1988. He trained initially in internal medicine. He commenced clinical and academic training at the Rotunda Hospital and the TCD Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. He then undertook a fellowship at the University of Melbourne, Perinatal Research Centre at the Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne.
He was appointed Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne and Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist in the Mercy Hospital for Women in 2000.
His academic leadership resulted in him being awarded the 1999 Blair-Bell Lectureship by the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists and the Ella MacKnight Memorial Lectureship 2000 by the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists
He returned to Ireland to take up the UCC Chair in Obstetrics & Gynaecology in 2001. At the same time, he assumed the clinical leadership of the Maternity Services in Cork.
He has a deep interest in organisational reform and change management. He gained unique experience from leading the amalgamation of three maternity hospitals to form the new state-of-the art Cork University Maternity Hospital. He was also the Director of Reconfiguration of the Health system in Cork and Kerry from 2009 to 2011. He currently chairs the Reconfiguration Forum for Cork and Kerry.
Professor Higgins has been highly influential on the national stage; he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Institute of Obstetrician & Gynaecologists for ten years. He has made significant contributions to the specialty including chairing the Institute national report – Maternity and Gynaecological Services in Ireland 2006-2016. He is a member of the consultant committee of the Irish Medical Organisation.
In his late forties, Professor Higgins is a practising Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at CUMH. He is married to Ann; they have six children aged eight to twenty years.
