Dr. Kieran Anthony O'Connor graduated from University College Cork (UCC) in 1997 with an honour medical degree.  Following his general medical training, Dr. O'Connor commenced with the higher medical training scheme in geriatric medicine and general internal medicine in 2000.  He trained in various hospitals in Ireland and, subsequently, completed his clinical training at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom (UK).

In 2005, Dr. O'Connor graduated from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the University of London with an MSc in epidemiology.  In January 2006, he was appointed as consultant physician in geriatric medicine in the Cork city-wide department of geriatric medicine. In 2007, Dr. O'Connor was appointed as a clinical senior lecturer in geriatric medicine at UCC. More recently in 2015, he was awarded a diploma in leadership and quality in healthcare from the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI).

Dr. O'Connor's clinical practice is divided between Cork's Mercy University Hospital (MUH) and St. Finbarr's Hospital.  At MUH he is part of a wider consultant geriatrician and multi-disciplinary team providing acute medical care for older people, acute stroke care services and general geriatric medicine outpatient clinics.  He led the development and opening of the first acute stroke unit in Cork city at MUH in January 2012.  The hospital continues to provide acute stroke assessment, stroke management and rehabilitation by the multi-disciplinary team in the acute stroke unit.

In St. Finbarr's Hospital, Dr. O'Connor works with the multi-disciplinary team within the inpatient rehabilitation services for older people.  The department has also developed a specialised rehabilitation unit for post-stroke rehabilitation.

Dr. O'Connor has a particular clinical interest in falls in later life.  He has run a "Complex Falls and Blackout Clinic" at the assessment and treatment centre in St. Finbarr's Hospital since 2012.

He has served as chairperson of Cork city consultant geriatrics group - (since September 2011), as a member of clinical advisory group of the national clinical programme within Health Service Executive (HSE) / RCPI - (since 2010) and a member of the falls prevention and bone health national implementation team HSE / Clinical Indemnity Scheme (CIS) - (2012-2015).

Dr. O'Connor has been actively involved in post graduate education througout his career. Between July 2009 and October 2015, Dr. O'Connor served as the national speciality director (NSD) for higher medical training in geriatric medicine at the RCPI.  In 2012, also at the RCPI, he was a member of the acute medicine curriculum development group.  In 2014, he was the chair of the post-graduate training working group feeding into the report on "Training 21st Century Clinical Leaders (Imrie Review)."

His research interests include health service evaluation of services for older people, elder abuse and self-neglect, falls in later life, and hospital discharge processes.  Dr. O'Connor is particularly interested in quality improvement within healthcare and is involved in current projects implementing a regional integrated falls and prevention pathway, the assessment of a medication reconciliation programme for frail older people, implementation and assessment of an inpatient falls prevention bundle, and improving discharge processes to reduce readmissions.