Speakers

Dr Astrid Elizabeth Anna Atlas graduated from Otago Medical School in 2001 and has worked as a house officer in Auckland in general surgery, medicine, adult and paediatric emergency medicine, neurosurgery, urology, geriatrics, psychiatry and paediatric surgery. She went over to Mt Druitt hospital, Westmede, NSW, Australia to complete rotation in Adult Emergency Medicine as an SHO. She continued to do work for one year in general medicine and surgery when she returned to ...read more

Professor Neil Barnes has been a consultant in respiratory and general medicine at Barts and the London NHS Trust since 1988 and professor of respiratory medicine at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry since 2002.

Professor Barnes trained at Cambridge University and Westminster Medical School qualifying in 1979. He started specialising in respiratory medicine in 1982, training at King's College Hospital and the London Chest Hospital.

His main clinical and research interests ...read more

Jeffrey is a graduate of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where he completed his medicine and pathology training. Prior to joining Labtests he was a Consultant Chemical Pathologist at St Helier Hospital in Carshalton and an honorary Senior Lecturer at St George's University of London. He has 64 peer reviewed publications.
Jeffrey was a Senior Lecturer in Chemical Pathology for several years at the University of Cape Town ...read more

Tanya Bish is the Quality and Professional Development Nurse Leader for Residential Aged Care, Waitemata District Health Board. She is a New Zealand trained registered nurse with over 20 years experience in nursing older adults predominantly in residential aged care settings. She has degrees in nursing and commerce and has held clinical, management, leadership and consulting roles within the aged care sector. She is currently working towards the completion of ...read more

Helen Bowen is a Gerontology Nurse Practitioner working with the Waitemata District Health Board, Specialist Services for Older Adults. She works in a multi-disciplinary team working with older people with highly complex health problems across primary, secondary and residential aged care settings.

Helen has been a provider and leader of care management since the 1990s. More recently she has focused on providing a senior nurse perspective through her Nurse Practitioner role that research has shown adds value and increases successful outcomes for the older adult population.

Linda Bryant is a clinical advisory pharmacist who has worked with East Health IPA and PHO for over fifteen years, providing medicines information and clinical medication reviews. She also teaches postgraduate clinical pharmacy courses and undertakes other clinical pharmacy roles in primary care.

Dr Michal Boyd is a Gerontology Nurse Practitioner and a Senior Lecturer with the Department of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Auckland. She has been a provider, leader and researcher of care management for older people since the early 1990's. In 2011, she led the development of the Ministry of Health's Medicines Care Guides for Residential Aged Care. She is currently co-investigator of the ARCHUS study, an intervention study aimed ...read more

Stephen Buetow is an Associate Professor in the Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Auckland, New Zealand, having also held academic positions in primary care in Australia (National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health) and England (National Primary Care Research and Development Centre in Manchester). With a PhD in Demography from the Australian National University and a broad background in the humanities and social sciences, Stephen produces health services ...read more

Matthew Clark was born and educated in Auckland, completing Medical School at the University of Auckland in 1990. The next ten years included medical experience, surgical training, and a doctorate. Matthew gained his specialist qualification in 2000, then worked as a locum consultant at Middlemore for 18 months. Three years in the UK followed, including two years in a specialist cancer unit, the Royal Marsden Hospital.

Over 40 peer-reviewed papers are detailed in Matthew's CV.

Matthew has now been in private practice since 2005.He currently sees patients ...read more

Mark is an orthopaedic knee specialist who has been practicing in Auckland for twelve years. He practices at Ascot and Middlemore Hospital with satellite clinics on the North Shore and in West Auckland.

During this time he has treated over 14,000 patients with knee problems. Mark trained initially in New Zealand then worked under leading knee surgeons in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.

Mark is continually striving to improve patient care ...read more

Dene comes from a sporting background being a NZ Academy of Sport provider in addition to being a Preferred Physiotherapist for Triathlon NZ, Bike NZ and Athletics NZ. He continues to compete and is an active Ironman Triathlete and accredited Tri NZ Coach.

He holds a Masters in Sports Medicine where he continued his special interest of overuse tendon injury and lower limb biomechanics further investigating the Achilles tendon and ...read more

Martin Connolly has been Freemasons' Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Auckland and Geriatrician at Waitemata District Health Board since March 2006. He originates from Manchester (UK) and qualified with honours at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1980. He obtained his MD from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1990 on the subject of bronchial responsiveness in asthma. Before being appointed to his present position Martin was Senior Lecturer ...read more

Heidi Cooper grew up in South Carolina in the USA and attended college in her hometown at Clemson University. Subsequently, she completed medical school at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC. She completed her radiology residency training and Musculoskeletal Radiology Fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. She was fortunate enough to find a job with her partner, also a Radiologist, at Mercy Radiology in Auckland which she started ...read more

Professor Gregor Coster was appointed Chairman of the Counties Manukau District Health Board in 2007, providing healthcare for 485,000 people in South Auckland, many of them with high needs. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Auckland having recently retired as Dean of Graduate Studies. He has had extensive experience in health as a general practitioner, academic, and in governance roles within the public sector. He had 15 years of ...read more

Dr. Shuan Dai is one of the founding directors of Eye Doctors at Ascot Hospital. He is specialized in adult & paediatric strabismus surgery & ocular motility disorders. He is a consultant ophthalmologist at Greenlane Clinical Center, a senior clinical lecturer of ophthalmology at University of Auckland and a visiting ophthalmologist for the Blind & Low Vision Network New Zealand (BLENNZ) at Homai.

Shuan is interested in clinical research and teaching. He is a ...read more

Sue Domanski is the Advisor Education and Assessment at Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners. A "teacher by trade" Sue is involved in GP Registrar programme design and delivery, educator training, evaluation and assessment and continuing medical education.

Dr Bronwyn Dunnachie is one of two Senior Advisors at The Werry Centre. Bronwyn is a part of the Senior Management Team, supporting the governance structure of the Centre and is involved in key operational decision making. Based in Christchurch, Bronwyn manages the Christchurch office, and has oversight for the Werry Centre projects delivered to the Central and Southern regions. She has lead several key projects at the Werry Centre including Real Skills ...read more

Claire Fitzgerald is the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind's national Practice Advisor for Registration and Needs Assessment. She has worked for the Foundation for the past 11 years. Claire's background is clinical, she trained as an orthoptist at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and continues to work part time at Hamilton Eye Clinic.

Chris Frew has fifteen years gerontological social work experience working for Age Concern Auckland. She coordinated the Elder Abuse and Neglect Prevention Service for seven years and is currently employed as a field worker. She recently completed a Master of Health Sciences at the University of Auckland, and the focus of her research was on how primary healthcare practitioners respond to elder abuse.

Chris is an Aotearoa/New Zealand certified social worker, who completed her ...read more

Dr. Susanna Galea, CADS Service Clinical Director / Consultant Psychiatrist:
Susanna has worked in the addiction field for a number of years. She provides clinical leadership to the largest drug and alcohol service in New Zealand. Susanna has been contributing to the scientific knowledge of addiction through involvement and facilitation of research projects, training of various disciplines and publications such as book chapters and peer review journals. Dr. Galea's main interests are in ...read more

Margaret is a qualified Clinical Biochemist. She previously worked in Clinical Chemistry at Auckland Hospital, specialising in Toxicilogy and Intensive Care medicine. Margaret moved to Nelson in 1991 and worked at the Nelson Diagnostic Laboratory as the Quality Manager the Laboratory Manager. She came to Nelson Bays Primary Health in 2007 to coordinate the PHO Performance Programme. This role has grown and her current title is Manager of General Practice Services and Quality.

Warren Groarke is a UK trained GP with a special interest in Sports Medicine as well as being a GP trainer.

His main place of work is Silverdale Medical, north of Auckland, where he is developing a large primary care facility with Southern Cross.

Warren has worked with ACC over a number of years and is on the Better@Work implementation steering group on behalf of Waitemata PHO.

Married to a writer with two teenage sons, Warren enjoys ...read more

Diana Hart is a Respiratory Nurse Practitioner at Middlemore Hospital South Auckland .She completed her nursing training in the UK at Addenbrookes Hospital Cambridge and came to New Zealand in 1980 .She completed the MN degree at the University of Auckland in 2005 and became a Nurse Practitioner in 2006.

She specialises in case management of chronic respiratory patients in their homes and to do so effectively liaises with the primary care ...read more

Cathy is the National Clinical Lead for the UK advanced communication skills programme, Connected and a member of the research committee of the European Association of Communication in Health Care. Since September 2010 Cathy has also been an Associate Director of Education at The Christie School of Oncology overseeing medical and non medical education and training.

During her time in Manchester Cathy was a lead facilitator on the Cancer Research UK Communication Skills in ...read more

Jo Hikaka is a clinical pharmacist for Waitemata DHB with a background in general medicine and health for the older adult. In 2011 she worked in the community aged residential care setting where she provided individualised pharmaceutical care plans, and medicines education and information to care facilities. Within the ARCHUS project she performed medicine reviews within the MDT setting. She is currently on maternity leave and will return to work at ...read more

Fiona is a General and Respiratory Physician at Middlemore Hospital, South Auckland. She trained in Nottingham, UK before moving to New Zealand to take up her current position in 2008. Her areas of interest are clinical education, pleural disease and COPD. She is also involved in multidisciplinary integrated care projects in the CMDHB area.

Karin is a Senior Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Capital and Coast District Health Board. Originally from the USA Karin joined the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in 1996, and led the Porirua and Kapiti teams since 2002. In July of 2011, Karin began a secondment with the Planning and Funding arm of the DHB and is currently the Infant, Child and Youth Project Consultant working on service development.

In September 2011, Karin travelled ...read more

Viv arrived in New Zealand accompanying her husband, Allan, in 1979. Prior to this she had a very successful professional career as Personal Assistant to respective Managing Directors at Courtaulds in London; Partridge & Love in Bristol; Moore Stephens & Co. in Bermuda and Nestle in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

 From 1979 until 1997 Viv followed a similar career path as Personal Assistant to John Todd of Todd Motors; Neil Tolerton of Fletcher Concrete, Laurie Margrain of Masport ...read more

Harish Kala is a registered occupational therapist, with OTRS Group Ltd, a nationally recognised interdisciplinary rehabilitation company, and is a part of a large team providing specialist services, including medical driving assessments. OTRS has a passion for driver safety for people with medical/ injury related conditions.

Harish holds a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy 1998 (India), and Master in Occupational Therapy 2000 (Australia). Harish's specialist area of work is in Driver/Passenger Rehabilitation and provides this ...read more

Rawiri is an Otago graduate who went as soon as possible into GP land. He has been doing GPEP2 through the research registrar pathway and is hoping to complete fellowship by the end of the year. He is a GP in Te Awamutu and also works for the Midlands Health Network. He sits on the local RNZCGP Waikato/Tairawhiti faculty. Currently this faculty funds a trial programme through the local GPEP2 learning groups through ...read more

Ngaire is a GP and Head of Department of the Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Auckland. She leads a programme of research "maximising health for older people" and is passionate about improving the lot of older people in all settings.

Jagrut graduated with Honours and a host of undergraduate awards from the University of Auckland in 2009, that same year he began working for Visique Rose Optometrists - Home of the Rose K lens, in Hamilton, New Zealand. He has a special interest in the irregular cornea, disease and orthokeratology including Hyperopic, astigmatic and myopia control Ortho-k. He is relishing learning the art of contact lens fitting from his colleagues Paul Rose and ...read more

Keith is a Pain Consultant with a particular interest in Musculoskeletal Pain Management. He is Fellow of the Australasian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and Fellow of The Australasian College of Musculoskeletal Medicine, and member of The New Zealand Pain Society and International Association for the Study of Pain. He has been the Director of PainCare, a private clinic in Auckland since 1997, and is a Consultant at the Pain Clinic ...read more

Francesco has been a full time GP in Mairangi Bay for the past 2 years.
Prior to moving to the North Shore of Auckland he was a Rural GP in Wellsford for 4 years.
He trained as a GP in London in 2003. Prior to this he qualified as a Paediatric Surgeon,
and also spent two years in Emergency Medicine while in London.
Soon after gaining his degree in 1995 he joined the Military for 2 years where he was
a Helicopter Rescuer/Medical ...read more

Sue Lim is the Service Manager of Waitemata DHB's Asian Health Support Services. She is a Chinese who has worked in management roles in Malaysia, before migrating to New Zealand in 1988 with her family. She has been the innovative developer of a range of Asian health services and a 24-7 interpreting service to provide a wrap around service for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) clients accessing WDHB primary and secondary care services ...read more

Sridhar is an Indian born resident of New Zealand. He currently holds the position as Head of the Faculty Medical Sciences and Yoga at Wellpark College of Natural Therapies, Auckland, New Zealand.

In 2012 as part of professional development he graduated with Masters in Health Sciences from University of Auckland researching the psyche of Parkinson's disease.
He earned his degree in Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences from NTR University of Health Sciences, ...read more

Born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, educated at Auckland Grammar School and the University of Auckland, School of Medicine. Tim had his early post-graduate medical experience at Waikato Hospital, Hamilton, New Zealand which lead on to specialty training in Paediatrics. A significant part of that experience involved Neonatal Intensive Care and Tim was involved in the air retrieval of at risk neonates from the region; undertaking intensive care transfers mainly ...read more

Mariska Mannes, Project Manager, CALD has worked with Sue Lim, Asian Health Support Services (AHSS) for the past five years. Working with a team of researchers and learning experts she has project managed the development and creation of the CALD courses for Mental Health sector; and the recent revision of the existing courses for the primary and secondary health sector for both class room and e-learning training. Culture is a complex subject and ...read more

Leigh left a legal career in medical malpractice and third party litigation to work in the healthcare administration sector in South Africa. After immigrating to New Zealand in 2010 Leigh took on the leadership of the Auckland District Health Board Concord Performance Improvement Programme and is involved in a number of initiatives aimed at increasing patient value, improving safety and reducing inefficiencies at the district health board. Her ACP roles in New Zealand ...read more

Dr Anne-Thea McGill BSc.MBChB.FRNZCGP is a Fellow of the RNZCGP and has been a council member of the Australia and New Zealand Obesity Society (ANZOS). Since 1998 she has taken a close interest in obesity and metabolic medicine. She has presented at local and international conferences on obesity. She has undertaken courses in obesity medicine (bariatrics) and now works only in this field. Currently, she runs B-Med Weight Control, her own medical weight ...read more

Naomi has been in private practice in the large optometry practice of Barry + Beale Optometrists for nearly thirty years.

As well as General Practice and Contact Lenses, she specializes in Low Vision, the subspecialty of Optometry that assists people whose vision cannot be improved by conventional spectacles or contact lenses alone, or through medical or surgical treatment. People with low vision are assisted with various optical or non-optical aids to maximize the use ...read more

John served as a naval medical officer and Director of Defence Medicine before joining ACC as an occupational physician in 1996. His role is to provide specialist advice on workforce injuries and diseases, assess work-related claims for cover and entitlement, and advise on rehabilitation. He has a particular interest in occupational toxicology and asbestos-related disease.

Annette Mortensen graduated as a Registered Comprehensive Nurse in 1980 and worked as a Public Health Nurse until 1989 in deprived areas of Auckland and South Auckland. From 1990 Annette worked in the Auckland Regional Sexual Health Service where she was Nurse Manager from 1996 to 2000. From 2000 to 2007, she worked as the Refugee Health Coordinator for the Auckland Regional Public Health Service. In 2007, Annette was presented with the supreme ...read more

Samantha has worked in a variety of surgical services prior to going into general practice. For 14years she worked as Associate in Plastic Surgery in Regional Plastic Services at Hutt Valley DHB running a weekly minor surgery clinic. This involved dealing with complex skin cancers requiring flaps, grafts and wide excisions. She has worked in General Practice for 15yrs and take referrals from other practitioners for complex cases that will not be treated ...read more

Dr David Newcombe is an academic psychologist with over 15 years experience working in the alcohol and drug sector in both a clinical and research capacity, in both New Zealand and Australia. He is the director of the post graduate alcohol and drug programmes in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland. His PhD thesis explored the clinical pharmacology of the methadone analoge Levo-alpha-acetylmethadool (LAAM). His current research interests include investigating brief interventions for risky substance use in primary care ...read more

Helen is the Academic Lead for Immunisation Research and Vaccinology at the Immunisation Advisory Centre and a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland. She has a background in biological sciences including immunology and a PhD in Vaccinology. Her key area of research interest is factors associated with vaccine safety and reactogenicity. Other areas of research activity include social aspects of immunisation, immunisation coverage and epidemiology and clinical aspects of immunogenicity ...read more

Vitreoretinal Surgeon, Cataract Surgeon, Medical Retinal Subspecialist at Auckland Eye and Greenlane Clinical Centre, Auckland. Retinal Fellow Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, 1987 - 1990.

Philip specialises in retinal, vitreo-retinal and cataract surgery. He has subspecialty training in both medical and surgical retina and is active in clinical and basic science research. Outside of Auckland Eye, Philip has plenty on his plate. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University ...read more

Louise Robinson is a GP and Professor of Primary Care and Ageing at the Institutes of Ageing and Health/Health and Society, Newcastle University. She has been an academic General Practitioner for 17 years and earned her MD from Newcastle University in 1999. Her research programme is centred on Primary Care and Ageing, with a special interest in the care of people with dementia in primary care.

Louise is currently the Royal College ...read more

Dr Christine Roke is the National Medical Advisor for Family Planning and a Senior Lecturer for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the Auckland Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. She practises from the Newmarket Family Planning clinic. She is particularly interested in long acting contraception and enjoys teaching.

An Update on Contraception. Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) is promoted for its increased effectiveness and ease of use. Are we advising ...read more

Perrin Rowland is a Professional Teaching Fellow and eLearning Design and Developer for the Goodfellow Unit (GFU) within the Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care at The University of Auckland. She leads the elearning strategy and design at the GFU through her work with the Goodfellow Club, which is an online continuing education accreditation website for primary health care (PHC) professionals; the development of online toolkits; contract developments; and, her latest ...read more

Dr Sharp graduated from Otago Medical School, trained in ophthalmology in Auckland and completed a two year Medical Retina fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital in Ophthalmology and Electrophysiology

She is currently based at Retina Specialists, Parnell and Ophthalmology Department, Greenlane Clinical Centre in Auckland. She has worked with the most current and effective medical therapies introducing photodynamic therapy in 1999 for age-related macular degeneration, and intravitreal Avastin and Lucentis since it became ...read more

John Scott is an Auckland-trained Physician and Geriatrician. He has been Clinical Director of the Older Adults and Home Health Service at Waitemata DHB since 2008.

He has an interest in the delivery of safe and appropriate healthcare to frail elderly, and sees collaboration between primary and secondary healthcare as key to ensuring this occurs.

He is currently involved with projects looking at improving dementia care across the continuum of the illness, and the prevention ...read more

New Zealand Rural General Practice Network chairperson Dr Joseph Scott-Jones has been GP principal in Opotiki since 1992. He holds an MbCHb (Sheffield UK 1986), MRCGP (UK), FRNZCGP, DGM, Dip Obs, Dip Sports Medicine, MMsc (Auckland). He was previously a regional representative on the Network Board and took over as chairperson in 2011. By virtue of his position as Network chairperson he is a member of the General Practice Leaders Forum. Jo ...read more

As well as working in the UK Dr Sellors has spent two years working in New Zealand. After moving from Christchurch he has worked for the last year in Hawke's Bay as a Registrar in Acute Care Medicine and in the Emergency Department.
He will be talking about the importance of integrated care between primary and secondary services and his experience of a new computer programme that he believes enables a smoother ...read more

Andrew trained as a psychologist and worked for a decade in secondary mental health services working in the child and adolescent area before seeing the light and moving to the primary care environment where he has had leadership roles in a number of organisations. Currently he is the CEO of Nelson Bay Primary Health. Significant projects underway at present include the creation of an Intergrated Family Health Centre in Golden Bay and half ...read more

Nikki works as a General Practitioner, Director of the Conectus Centre, which includes the Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC), and a Senior Lecturer in the Division of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Auckland. She specialises in immunisation and preventive child health issues. She currently works from Wellington, based in the University School of Medicine, Wellington and as a general practitioner at the Pacific Health Centre, Strathmore.

Nikki represents the Immunisation Advisory Centre ...read more

Dr. Vaishali Mona Verma has trained as a general practitioner, a paediatrician, and worked as a public health person. She has worked in several countries including New Zealand, Australia, India, Oman and the United Kingdom. She has been Medical Advisor to the UN High Commission for Refugees in India, and Health Advisor for the UN World Food Programme.

She has been committed to the Rights of the Child for the ...read more

Jim Vause is a GP, Redwoodtown Doctors, in Blenheim and is a member of the RNZCGP Executive. He is also the current Chairperson of the New Zealand Guidelines Group.

Allyson is a Registered Clinical Psychologist, co-director and therapist for Sex Therapy New Zealand, working with individuals and couples presenting with difficulties related to intimacy and sexuality. She is an Honorary Lecturer with the University of Auckland providing training in sex therapyto health professionals. Originally from the UK, Allyson migrated to New Zealand in 2004 and currently works in private practice where she offers psychological assessment and treatment, supervision and ...read more

Hadidjah, or Didje, has worked as an Occupational Therapist in a variety of clinical settings including child development and drug and alcohol services. She has lived and worked in New Zealand and Asia. She has specialised in vocational rehabilitation, working with clients, employers, GPs and ACC over the past 6 years and is currently programme manager of the Better@Work service in Waitemata PHO.