Dermot Ryan qualified in the Republic of Ireland and completed his General Practice training there. He worked in Canada, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe before coming to the UK where he worked as a GP for over 30 years with thirty years of this in the same practice in Loughborough.

Since retirement he has had a career in a more academic setting as an Honorary Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh to pursue his interests in asthma and allergy with over 200 publications in peer reviewed journals. He has previously been the chairman of the Primary Care Respiratory Group in the UK, during which time he established the Chair of Primary Care Respiratory Medicine at the University of Aberdeen and co-established what is now the npjPrimary Care Respiratory Medicine with Dr Mark Levy.

He has also been the Chair of the Primary Care Special Interest Group of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and President of the Respiratory Effectiveness Group.He is currently a director of the International Primary Care Respiratory Group.