Rate My Professor Mark Pearson

Professor Mark Pearson is a Professor in Implementation Science within the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Hull, serving as Director of Research (Hull) for Hull York Medical School and affiliated with the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre and the Institute for Clinical and Applied Health Research. He holds a PhD from an ESRC-funded doctorate examining knowledge use in Public Health guideline development at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). Prior to academia, Pearson worked clinically as an Adult Nurse in acute medicine, rehabilitation, and medical oncology, with an interlude studying livelihoods in Northern Nigeria. His research career progressed at the University of Exeter Medical School and the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care South West Peninsula (PenCLAHRC), before he joined Hull York Medical School in 2017.

Pearson's academic interests center on implementation science, using theory-driven methods including realist research to bridge knowledge gaps in routine practice, with a focus on palliative care, advanced illness, and interfaces between health and social care systems. His contributions address delirium management, breathlessness self-management, person-centred outcome measures, medicines optimisation, exercise programmes, and workforce wellbeing. As Co-Editor-in-Chief of Evidence & Policy since 2018, he has shaped scholarly discourse. Key appointments include Academic Lead for the NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration North Yorkshire, Implementation Science Lead for the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Palliative and End of Life Care, Programme Co-Director for the PGCert/PGDip/MSc Palliative Care: Implementing Best Practice, and module lead for implementation science courses. He has chaired NIHR study steering committees (NIHR135102, 2023-2025; NIHR130922, 2021-2023), served on NIHR Health Services & Delivery Research funding panels (2019-2022), and been external examiner for programmes at the University of Edinburgh and King’s College London. Notable funded projects feature DAMPen-D II (Co-Chief Investigator, 2024-2028) on delirium in palliative care and North Yorkshire Health Determinants Research Collaboration (Co-Chief Investigator, 2024-2028). Pearson supervises PhD research on palliative interventions and realist methodologies.