Prof. Kerins received a BSc in Physiology in 1981 and an MB, BAO, BCh from University College Cork (UCC) in 1984.  He completed sequential fellowships in clinical pharmacology and in clinical cardiology at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.  During his fellowship in clinical pharmacology he was awarded a Merck Sharp and Dohme international fellowship in clinical pharmacology.  Upon completion of fellowship training, he was appointed to the faculty of Vanderbilt University Medical Centre where he was ultimately appointed as an associate professor of medicine and chief of the cardiology section at Nashville VA.  

He was appointed as professor of therapeutics at UCC and consultant physician at Mercy University Hospital (MUH) in 2006, and served as dean of the medical school, UCC from 2007-2010.  

Prof. Kerins was appointed as clinical director at MUH in 2012; and he was awarded a diploma in leadership in quality and healthcare in 2013.

He has research interests in anti-platelet and anti-thrombotic therapy, vascular biology with a particular focus on the renin-angiotensin and fibrinolytic pathways, and non-invasive cardiac imaging, with a particular focus on echocardiography, cardiac MRI and cardiac CT imaging.

Prof. Kerins is a fellow of the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, the European Society of Cardiology and the American Society of Echocardiography.