Dr. Caoilfhionn Marie Connolly
Rheumatology
Specialities
Locations
Galway Clinic, Suite 19 |
Mon-Thurs & Fri am , AM-PM
Dr. Caoilfhionn Connolly is a Consultant Rheumatologist who completed six years of training at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University, USA. She completed two fellowships in rheumatology, including a subspecialty fellowship in myositis, where she received multiple awards for both clinical and academic achievements. She has a special interest in inflammatory rheumatic conditions, with a particular interest in myositis and muscle disease. Dr. Connolly’s mission is to provide clinically excellent, evidence-based care to enhance the lives of patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases.
Dr. Connolly obtained her undergraduate medical degree at the University of Ireland, Galway. She subsequently underwent internal medicine training at the renowned Osler Medicine Residency Training Program at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where her clinical excellence, passion for patient care and scholarly approach to clinical practice was recognized with the Frank L. Coulson Jr. Award for Clinical Excellence. She was then recruited to the Johns Hopkins Rheumatology Fellowship Program, and successfully completed two fellowships. Throughout her training, she demonstrated excellence in both clinical practice and research, with over 35 peer-reviewed publications to date. Her remarkable achievements culminated in the prestigious 2023 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Distinguished Fellow Award - the highest accolade that can be bestowed upon a fellow in training.
Dr. Connolly played a vital role in efforts to inform strategies for patients with rheumatic diseases to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. She led a national research study evaluating the safety and efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination among patients with rheumatic diseases, with multiple peer reviewed publications in top tier journals, including Annals of Internal Medicine, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, Arthritis & Rheumatology, Rheumatology and Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. She has also committed time to the dissemination of novel, practice-changing findings to patient advocacy and healthcare provider groups at both the national and international level.
Transitioning her research focus from SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, Dr. Connolly has delved into pivotal clinical questions in myositis, publishing in high-impact journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine. As a committed member of the global rheumatology community, she has served on the American College of Rheumatology Committee for Research (2022-23) as well as International Myositis Assessment and Clinical Studies Group Meeting Committee (2022-present).
Dr. Connolly successfully completed a Fellowship in Clinical and Molecular Rheumatology at the Johns Hopkins Division of Rheumatology in June 2022. The Division of Rheumatology at Johns Hopkins is a global leader in rheumatology, and has been ranked the #1 rheumatology program in the USA by US News & World Reports for the last 18 consecutive years. Based on her significant contributions, she was awarded the Jerome L. Greene Discovery Fund to facilitate an additional year of subspecialty training as an advanced Myositis fellow at Johns Hopkins. During this final year of training, a significant portion of her clinical time was dedicated to clinics at the Johns Hopkins Myositis Centre, where the patient population exclusively consisted of patients with myositis; these clinics are some of the few globally that exclusively see patients with myositis. Upon completion of her training, she was honoured with the prestigious Distinguished Fellow Award by the American College of Rheumatology, exemplifying her exceptional accomplishments.
Current Memberships:
- Irish Society of Rheumatology
- American College of Rheumatology
- International Myositis Assessment & Clinical Studies Group (IMACS)
- American College of Physicians
- Royal College of Physicians, Ireland.
