Pearl O'Rourke, MD

Pearl O'Rourke 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 the responsible conduct of research. She is also chair of the Partners Healthcare System ESCRO (Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight) Committee. Pearl has worked as a pediatric critical care physician at the Children's Hospital, Boston and at the Children's Hospital, University of Washington, Seattle where she was the director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. She was active in clinical research in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), liquid ventilation, high frequency ventilation and pediatric resuscitation. In Seattle she served many years as a member of the IRB. Pearl has also been involved in international medical care, serving in China and Indonesia with Project HOPE. In 1995-1996, Pearl did a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy fellowship working for Senator Edward Kennedy. Following this fellowship, she became 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.