Rate My Professor Ben Hudson

Dr Ben Hudson serves as Senior Lecturer and Head of Primary Health Care in Christchurch at the University of Otago, within the Faculty of Medicine, Health Sciences Division. He earned his MB BS from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK, followed by MRCGP and FRNZCGP qualifications after completing general practice training in the North East of England. Since 2005, Hudson has practiced as a general practitioner at Lyttelton Health Centre, embracing the generalism of primary care across diverse patient backgrounds, ages, and medical issues. At the University of Otago Christchurch, he convenes the trainee intern general practice attachment, leads education initiatives as clinical leader at Pegasus Health, and sits on its clinical board. In 2022, he was appointed Medical Director of Pegasus Health Charitable.

Hudson's research specializations center on pain management in osteoarthritis and risk communication. He has contributed to clinical trials such as the Nortriptyline in knee osteoarthritis (NortIKA) study, a double-blind randomized controlled trial published in 2015 assessing nortriptyline for knee pain relief. Recent key publications include 'Participant experiences of the Knee Care for Arthritis through Pharmacy Service (KneeCAPS): A personalised hī' in Osteoarthritis & Cartilage Open (2026, with Darlow et al.); 'Online osteoarthritis training programme for community-based clinicians: Mixed methods cohort study' (2025, Osteoarthritis & Cartilage Open); 'Cefalexin prescribing appropriateness in general practice: An evaluation study' in Journal of Primary Health Care (2025); 'Te hāpai i te mana wāhine, te takahi i te mana wāhine: Māori women's experiences of empowerment and disempowerment in sexual and reproductive healthcare' (2025, Journal of Primary Health Care); and 'Mapping the service models and outcomes from general practitioners with special interests/extended roles in Aotearoa New Zealand: A scoping review' (2026). He has supervised numerous student theses from 2008 to 2018 on topics including pandemic vaccines, preventive interventions, decision aids for cardiovascular risk and fracture prevention, and insulin use in Type 2 Diabetes. Hudson collaborates on initiatives like the FREE from Knee Pain team, Hip Fracture Risk Communication Study, and Let's Test for HPV Study, influencing primary care practices in chronic pain management, antibiotic stewardship, and health equity in New Zealand.