George Kernohan is a Professor of Health Research at Ulster University. He leads research projects to make things better for people with long-term conditions like Parkinson’s disease and dementia, He is looking at the effectiveness of Day Care, which allows people to get support whilst still staying at home. He has developed a new model for knowledge transfer: this is a critical step in getting research into practice.  This is also a focus of his teaching at Ulster University through a course on clinical practice development and evidence-based practice.  George is also very interested in Research Ethics- getting things right for research participants.  He worked with Office for Research Ethics Committees in Northern Ireland for 10 years and currently chairs the Institute of Nursing and Health Research “Filter Committee” for all research applications.

He was a member of the steering group that developed the 2016 guidelines for professionals involved with Palliative care in People with Parkinson’s disease in Ireland.  He has advisory roles with Parkinson’s UK, with Alzheimer’s Society in the UK, with the Institutes of Health Research in Canada and with the European Commission.  Above all, George has an interest in planning and achieving better outcomes from multi-professional health research work where users have priority.

With colleagues in Western HSC Trust, George led an evaluation of the pressure relieving properties of hospital mattresses that resulted in wholesale replacement of patient surfaces in Northern Ireland.

He has 200 peer reviewed publications which have more than 5,000 citations: his “H index” is 39.