Dr Andrée Rochfort, Director of the Health in Practice Programme, a system of healthcare support for GPs and their families set up by the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP).
Personal/family: Lives in Wexford, married to Michael and they have four daughters, Cíana, Róisín, Orla and Emer.
What figure from the world of medicine/ health do you most admire?
Leonardo da Vinci from the aspect of furthering anatomy, science and art, Prof Bernardino Ramazzini, another Italian, regarded as the father of occupational medicine.
What other career might you have chosen?
After medicine, my second choice of career on the CAO form was veterinary medicine. Nowadays, I'd give higher priority to a creative career in garden design or art.
If you were appointed Minister for Health, what would be your first priority?
Reward the phenomenal work of general practitioners with a review of how the interface between general practice and hospital services can be made more efficient and more patient-friendly. There is enormous scope for improving patient care by developing access to services in the community in comparison with with having everything hospital-based.
Do you have a phobia/what is your greatest fear?
Losing a member of my family.
Have you ever been a patient and were you a good one?
Yes and yes. Being a patient and a doctor makes you acutely aware of how you have to trust your doctor. I also know how hard it can be to treat patients who are doctors.
What three books would you bring to a desert island?
Subsistence farming on a Desert Island, Desert Island Viniculture, and Long-distance swimming techniques!
Have you a fail-safe method of dealing with stress?
Different methods work at different times: peace and quiet (rare in our house!); gardening; walking on Sliabh Bhuidhe; making lists of things to do; revisiting lists of things to do; offloading onto my ever-so-tolerant husband
What is your favourite TV or radio programme?
Saturday morning's Playback with Ruth Buchanan - great to catch up on the week's news, Tonight with Vincent Browne, Have I Got News for You, One Foot in the Grave any good comedy.
If you did not live in Ireland, where would you choose to spend the rest of your life?
On that desert island with my husband and children? Otherwise, Perros Guirec in Brittany, France.
Summarise yourself in 12 words.
Enthusiastic, motivated, determined, energetic, honest, approachable, fun-loving, outdoor type, broad-minded, spiritual, numerate (12 or is it 11?).
Do you use alternative medicine/therapies?
I haven't had reason to - yet - thankfully but I would consider the appropriate alternatives if the situation arose.
Who or what makes you laugh?
My husband's brilliant sense of humour, my children and the things they say, Laurel and Hardy, Cary Grant, Victor Meldrew and my brother, James.