P. Pearl O’Rourke, MD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Harvard Medical School
Director of Human Research Affairs
Partners HealthCare System, Inc.
Biography
Pearl is the Director of Human Research Affairs at Partners HealthCare Systems in Boston and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She is responsible for the systems that support the regulatory and ethical oversight of human research and human embryonic stem cell research.
Her career began as a pediatric critical care physician at Children's Hospital, Boston and then Children's Hospital, University of Washington, Seattle as Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. She did clinical research in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), liquid ventilation, high frequency ventilation and pediatric resuscitation.
Following a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy fellowship working for Senator Edward Kennedy, from 1997 to 2000 she was the Deputy Director of the Office of Science Policy in the Office of the Director at the NIH where she worked on issues such as privacy, gene therapy (transfer) embryonic stem cells, and genetic discrimination.
Pearl has been actively involved with PRIM&R (Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research), as a Board member and past president of the Board.