Rate My Professor Carl Thompson

Professor Carl Thompson is a Professor of Applied Health Research in the School of Healthcare, Faculty of Medicine and Health, at the University of Leeds. He is a registered nurse (RN, York College of Nursing, 1989) with a broad portfolio of NHS experience, ranging from nursing assistant to NHS Trust non-executive director. Thompson earned his DPhil in Social Policy from the University of York in 1996 and a BSc Hons (first class with distinction) in Social Policy from the same institution in 1993. Prior to joining the University of Leeds in 2015, he held a personal chair in health sciences at the University of York. At Leeds, he has served as Director of Research in the School of Healthcare and Pro Dean for Applied Health Research in the Faculty of Medicine and Health. He holds visiting professorships at the Universities of Alberta in Canada and East Anglia in the UK, and has contributed to national and international funding panels, including the NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research (HSDR) committee, the Irish Health Research Board, and Northern Irish HSC R&D.

Thompson's research specializations encompass health services research, implementation science, decision science, and evidence-based healthcare, with a focus on how individuals use information in clinical practice and policymaking. His expertise includes clinical decision making and judgement, mixed methods evaluation, social judgement analysis, Q methodological modelling, knowledge translation, dissemination and adoption of innovations, health and social care technologies, and care homes. As principal investigator, he leads projects such as the NIHR-funded SENSITISE study (optimiSing tEchNology’s contrIbuTIon to Social carE, £490,000), the CONTACT trial on wearable technology for contact tracing in care homes (£2 million), and investigations into computerised decision support systems in nursing (£0.5 million). He is co-investigator on the STaRQ study examining staffing and quality in care homes (£1 million) and a core partner in the Nurturing Innovation in Care Homes (NiCHE Leeds) initiative. Thompson has secured or collaborated on over £20 million in funding from bodies including NIHR, MRC, and ESRC, fostering international partnerships in Australia, the Netherlands, the US, and Canada. He has authored three books and more than 120 peer-reviewed research articles on evidence-based practice, clinical decision making, and social network theory applications in health services, significantly impacting implementation science and care home practices.