Honorary degrees awarded
It has probably been a long time since David Gerrard felt like a fish out of water.
If the 1964 Olympian and 1966 Commonwealth Games swimming gold medallist was feeling out of his depth yesterday, at an event to honour the University of Otago Medical School's leading medical graduates, the 80-year-old hid it well.
After his successful swimming career, he gained a medical degree at Otago in 1977 and went on to become a sports medicine specialist, attending many Olympic Games as the New Zealand team doctor, chef-de-mission and medical commissioner, and three Rugby World Cups as the anti-doping commissioner.
His published research in sports medicine and science has made an impact nationally and internationally, particularly in the area of anti-doping. He remains a consultant to several international medical committees.
Yesterday, the emeritus professor was one of four leading medical graduates from the University of Otago to be awarded an honorary doctor of science, as part of the Otago Medical School 150th anniversary celebrations this weekend.
He was humble about the honorary degree, and said it was not just a celebration of his personal journey, but rather a reflection of the foundation provided by the university in shaping who he is today.
"I was fortunate to have been part of an inspiring academic community for over 40 years as an undergraduate, clinician and academic.
"Mentors, peers and colleagues shaped my time at Otago, and in return, I trust I was able to share these values with students I was fortunate enough to work with and learn from.
"I'm proud to be counted among the university's distinguished alumni."
The other leading alumni to receive the honorary degree were Dame Margaret Sparrow, Prof Dinah Reddihough and Associate Prof Jioji Malani.
Dame Margaret made extraordinary contributions to sexual and reproductive health throughout her career as a family planning educator and reproductive rights advocate.
She pioneered contraception and abortion services for students and vasectomies for men, and was one of the first doctors to prescribe the emergency contraceptive pill and successfully campaigned for the introduction of legal and safe abortions in New Zealand.
She was honoured by yesterday's acknowledgement.
"Although in the 1950s and '60s there was inadequate education in sexual health, especially in the topics of contraception and abortion, the good basic training that I did receive enabled me to pursue a rewarding career in sexual and reproductive health," she said.
Paediatrics Prof Reddihough is a leader in advancing knowledge about physical disability in childhood, and her work addresses the health and social inequities of young people with cerebral palsy.
For her, the honorary degree was an unexpected privilege.
"My work has been made possible because of my partnerships with many wonderful professionals over my career, and more especially with people with lived experience of disability, especially cerebral palsy, and their families who have inspired and encouraged me to do my best.
"I have treasured memories of my student days, the various teachers and lecturers, my classmates and the campus of which I was a part."
Assoc Prof Malani is a leading specialist in internal medicine and advocates for those with kidney disease, particularly in the Pacific region.
He established Fiji's kidney dialysis unit and assisted in a world-class gastroenterology programme that has revolutionised the approach and treatment of gastroenterological conditions.
The former University of Hawai'i clinical professor helped train 70 physicians for the Northern Pacific and establish what is believed to be the first postgraduate medical training programme in the Pacific region.
He said it was "a profound honour" to be acknowledged by an institution he holds in such high regard.
"My journey at the University of Otago as a medical student has been nothing short of transformative.
"The university's commitment to excellence is evident in both its academic offerings and the invaluable life skills it imparts."
john.lewis@odt.co.nz
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Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
Honorary degrees awarded
It has probably been a long time since David Gerrard felt like a fish out of water. If the 1964 Olympian and 1966 Commonwealth Games swimming gold medallist was feeling out of his depth yesterday, at an event to honour the University of Otago Medical School's leading medical graduates, the 80-year-old hid it well. After his successful swimming career, he gained a medical degree at Otago in 1977 and went on to become a sports medicine specialist, attending many Olympic Games as the New Zealand team doctor, chef-de-mission and medical commissioner, and three Rugby World Cups as the anti-doping commissioner. His published research in sports medicine and science has made an impact nationally and internationally, particularly in the area of anti-doping. He remains a consultant to several international medical committees. Yesterday, the emeritus professor was one of four leading medical graduates from the University of Otago to be awarded an honorary doctor of science, as part of the Otago Medical School 150th anniversary celebrations this weekend. He was humble about the honorary degree, and said it was not just a celebration of his personal journey, but rather a reflection of the foundation provided by the university in shaping who he is today. "I was fortunate to have been part of an inspiring academic community for over 40 years as an undergraduate, clinician and academic. "Mentors, peers and colleagues shaped my time at Otago, and in return, I trust I was able to share these values with students I was fortunate enough to work with and learn from. "I'm proud to be counted among the university's distinguished alumni." The other leading alumni to receive the honorary degree were Dame Margaret Sparrow, Prof Dinah Reddihough and Associate Prof Jioji Malani. Dame Margaret made extraordinary contributions to sexual and reproductive health throughout her career as a family planning educator and reproductive rights advocate. She pioneered contraception and abortion services for students and vasectomies for men, and was one of the first doctors to prescribe the emergency contraceptive pill and successfully campaigned for the introduction of legal and safe abortions in New Zealand. She was honoured by yesterday's acknowledgement. "Although in the 1950s and '60s there was inadequate education in sexual health, especially in the topics of contraception and abortion, the good basic training that I did receive enabled me to pursue a rewarding career in sexual and reproductive health," she said. Paediatrics Prof Reddihough is a leader in advancing knowledge about physical disability in childhood, and her work addresses the health and social inequities of young people with cerebral palsy. For her, the honorary degree was an unexpected privilege. "My work has been made possible because of my partnerships with many wonderful professionals over my career, and more especially with people with lived experience of disability, especially cerebral palsy, and their families who have inspired and encouraged me to do my best. "I have treasured memories of my student days, the various teachers and lecturers, my classmates and the campus of which I was a part." Assoc Prof Malani is a leading specialist in internal medicine and advocates for those with kidney disease, particularly in the Pacific region. He established Fiji's kidney dialysis unit and assisted in a world-class gastroenterology programme that has revolutionised the approach and treatment of gastroenterological conditions. The former University of Hawai'i clinical professor helped train 70 physicians for the Northern Pacific and establish what is believed to be the first postgraduate medical training programme in the Pacific region. He said it was "a profound honour" to be acknowledged by an institution he holds in such high regard. "My journey at the University of Otago as a medical student has been nothing short of transformative. "The university's commitment to excellence is evident in both its academic offerings and the invaluable life skills it imparts."
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
A vocation to heal
Training at the Otago Medical School has changed dramatically over the years, but the dedication to care remains a constant, Paul Gorman discovers. Dunedin may still be waiting for its new hospital but look on the bright side - this weekend there will be a couple of hundred extra doctors at the other end of town. King's Birthday marks the Otago Medical School's 150th anniversary, with more than 300 alumni, current students, staff and other guests expected from around the country, Australia and the United States. The oldest attendee is believed to have graduated in 1954, with other graduates from 1960 onwards. The celebration of a century and a-half of medical teaching, clinical training and medical research at the University of Otago will include lectures, tours and displays, a gala dinner and even the Humerus Medical Revue . However, despite the excitement and happy reunions, the sharing of stories and advice, the anniversary comes amid warnings that graduates face an increasingly challenging work environment. The 150th will also provide vivid reminders of the antagonism and bigotry early female students experienced from males at the school. Biographies of 150 of the more than 400 women who graduated MBChB between 1896 and 1967, (when the country's second medical school opened in Auckland) feature in Against the Odds (Massey University Press), by Prof Cynthia Ferguson and Michaela Selway, which is being launched in Dunedin this weekend. The stories of chauvinism from academics and fellow students alike, the practical jokes and the stern words from lecturers they were wasting everyone's time, the exclusion from functions and the ongoing teasing, are shocking, but reveal that it made the women more determined to succeed. As Ferguson says, one of the worst aspects is how long the sexism persisted. ''While it isn't nice, you expect to hear about these moments of hostility from the early years because these were the women bucking the system. ''But though it lessened, it continued all the way through to the end of our time period. Actually, it went beyond. When I was an undergraduate at Auckland Medical School I was told by a fellow student that I was taking a man's space.'' Prof Stephen Robertson would love to be at the anniversary. He says he has always enjoyed medical school reunions, but this time he is deep in the throes of a sabbatical in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Robertson is the Curekids Professor of paediatric genetics at Otago University and graduated from the medical school in 1990. After that he pursued a Doctor of Philosophy at Oxford University. He also specialises in clinical genetics. For him, class reunions have been a chance to talk with peers about the ups and downs of their professional lives. ''These are the people you're mixing with who recognise you from your formative years when you were unmoulded clay and they're just fascinated and interested about what you've ended up doing, and what sort of shape you are [in] now. ''We all recognise that we lead this tenuous and rather difficult professional life where, you know, things could sometimes be very, very good and sometimes be really really difficult and challenging. ''I hesitate to use the word 'bad' but, as one of my old classmates said to me at a reunion, we all know everybody's had a hard time in some way or another. ''Some of us know the details and some of us don't, and it's a great leveller.'' There's no doubt the pressure on medical professionals is increasing, Robertson says. ''We have rising public expectations, rising professional expectation in terms of how much we need to look after our patients, and then a sinking lid on resources. ''GPs are possibly at the sharp end, most of all, because the public have unfiltered access to them. ''The big challenge is finding the head space and the heart space to be a humanistic deliverer of care, and because we've been crowded on those three sides, that erodes you. ''There's no doubt about it - you find less and less space, and less and less resilience, to be an attentive and caring person. ''And I think in the end people end up in debit and it erodes them. ''It's terrible because - and it might be an unpopular thing to say - some of our brightest and best people choose to study medicine. ''They're not just talented in terms of their ability to pass exams, but they're talented in all these other directions in life. They're absolutely phenomenal people. ''But they're the people that end up ending their career not full of a surfeit of achievement, but having been really worn down. ''People somehow need to be able to find a space where they do enough medicine to be competent and remain on top of their game, but not too much that's so pressured that they end up being eroded. ''I don't think our current health system allows someone to inhabit that space. I think in the end, if you try to be a really top-notch doctor, you end up personally paying more than you receive.'' Doctors and the medical profession face unique challenges in Aotearoa, he says, and not just the ethnic differences in wellbeing, health delivery and uptake. ''That gets a lot of air time. But there's the uniqueness New Zealand's got in terms of being a nation that's relatively young, with the sort of class society that we have, which is relatively even but with gaps arising and an increasingly large class of people on the poverty line who are really struggling and those who are extremely wealthy. ''And, also, the challenges that we have economically as a nation that aspires to be innovative and developed, but still very commodity driven. ''All of these have impacts on health. And the fact we're a geologically unstable country that sits in the Roaring Forties and we're having these weather systems bubble up from there and bubble down from the subtropics. ''So adapting to a changing climate ... might be all the way from pathogens to how we build our homes and build our cities. ''Also, think about our rural-urban split, and how rural New Zealand is handling their health challenges and how they should be serviced, and what their culture and sociology is like versus the culture and sociology in urban centres.'' A further challenge is to ensure enough graduates move into science as well as working as clinicians. ''As a physician scientist, I'm still practising medicine, and I still do my clinical genetics as well as run my research lab. ''The people who are inclined could be given the chance to do some science and perhaps consider whether their clinical practice could be mixed with science. ''I know they are only a minority, and the vast majority of people go to med school because they want to be a healthcare practitioner. But we need our scientific workforce because we've got unique challenges.'' Robertson returned to Otago in 2002 and ''closed the loop''. ''I've come back home to my alma mater to walk the same corridors which I walked as a student. It's quite nostalgic at times, and it brings back lots of memories, good memories. ''I had a wonderful time as a med student in Dunedin. Not only was it a fun place to grow up amongst good friends, life-long friends, but also intellectually it was where things took off for me. Being back here, and having my lab here in the Hercus Building, closed that circle. ''Otago has been a fantastic place for me. So, I'm a bit sad that I am not going to be in town.'' ''Fantastic'' may not have been the adjective first-year female students applied to their experience of the medical school, as Against the Odds suggests: ''As they took their places in the front row of the lecture theatre - as they had been advised to do by women students in the years ahead of them - they were greeted with boos, whistles and stomping from the young men in the back rows. Some noticed the words 'Women's place is in the home' engraved into their desks. Some professors stood at the lectern and declared, 'I see we have females. You have taken a male's place and will waste it ... You are all going to get married and have children and it will have been a waste of time training you'.'' Then there were the demands from male students for the women to strip when a professor said the class would be ''listening to hearts today''. ''It might be professors ignoring them or calling them 'chaps' and addressing the whole class as 'gentlemen'. It might be midway through the academic year, when it was time for lectures on reproductive organs and contraception, and a professor would declare, 'I now come to the part of my lectures I refuse to give before women. Therefore, the women must leave the room, or I will leave'.'' During dissections, ''pieces of flesh would be slid into their lab pockets'', or in lessons on the female anatomy male students and academics might make inappropriate comments. ''Experiences such as these, or variations of them, have been recounted by many of the women who studied at the Otago Medical School across the seven decades covered by this book. Not every woman experienced such hostility and, indeed, many were adamant that they did not ever encounter sexism or discrimination, either during their studies or throughout their careers. Others said that at that point in their lives they 'hadn't heard of the word ''harassment''. We didn't know about that. We just felt we weren't fitting in well enough'.'' The female graduates between 1896 and 1967 ''certainly had the odds stacked against them'', the authors say, with an average gender ratio of 90% men and 10% women. ''Their stories highlight not only the barriers they encountered but also their remarkable achievements. These pioneering women did more than just break into a male-dominated profession: they redefined it. Their legacy is one of perseverance, hard work and the pursuit of equality, and it continues to inspire and guide women in medicine today. ''The history of medicine in Aotearoa New Zealand is richer and more inclusive because of the invaluable contributions these women have made, reminding us that progress is built on the foundations laid by those who dared to challenge the established order, against all odds.'' AI cannot replace compassion: Professor Advances in medical education using artificial intelligence cannot be allowed to replace the enduring core values and compassion of practitioners, Prof Tim Wilkinson says. In the New Zealand Medical Journal last week, Wilkinson, a professor of medicine and medical education at Otago University's Christchurch campus, said there were plenty of challenges ahead for teaching and learning. These included ''competency-based education, personalised learning, and the integration of AI''. ''These developments must be grounded in enduring values: professionalism, teamwork, and community engagement. ''The central task remains unchanged: to train doctors who are not only knowledgeable and skilled, but also compassionate and committed to those they serve.'' In its early decades, the Otago Medical School mostly followed international teaching trends, he says. However, confidence grew and so did the appetite for innovation, including in rural medical training. ''By 2007, Otago had launched its Rural Medical Immersion Programme. ''This highly successful fifth-year placement immerses students in rural settings using a longitudinal integrated clerkship model. ''All students benefit from some rural exposure - even if they never practise in those settings - because understanding the needs of rural colleagues is essential to team-based care. ''This led to the philosophy of 'a lot for a few, and some for everyone', which means that, today, Otago medical students are placed in 57 towns and localities across New Zealand, 48 of them rural or regional, working with 135 medical practices.'' Otago has achieved international recognition for its medical education assessment, its work in Hauora Māori and Indigenous curriculum development, and admissions policies, have contributed to a ''student body more reflective of New Zealand society''. ''Otago is now recognised as a leader in rural health, assessment, interprofessional learning, and Indigenous health - not simply catching up, but helping set the pace.'' The role of doctors has evolved into a team-based one, Wilkinson says. ''Likewise, teachers have moved from knowledge-holders to learning-facilitators. ''Medical schools no longer own learning resources exclusively; instead, students and staff evaluate and co-curate such materials from many sources. ''Amid these advances, a new future tension is emerging: how far training should be personalised when healthcare is rarely practised alone. ''We assess students as individuals, but the work is always in teams. Learning may be increasingly individualised - but care must always be collective.'' Technology will keep changing how medicine is taught, ''but it must never change why we teach''. ''Our task is to shape doctors who are not only skilled and adaptable, but deeply connected to the people and communities they serve. ''That commitment - to care, to professionalism, to collective purpose - is what must endure, even as we continue to balance past wisdom with future innovation,'' Wilkinson's article says.
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Med school training great then and now
While many things about the training at the Otago Medical School may have changed over the past 150 years, many things remain the same. John Lewis compares the training of a doctor who graduated from the school in 1965 with that of a doctor who will graduate later this year. Pete Strang describes himself as a "strange specimen". He's not your typical doctor. In fact, he would make a great lead character in a medical drama, about a MacGyver-like doctor who can do Caesarean sections, using nothing but a sharp stick, a torch and some gaffer tape in the back blocks of third-world countries. Some of his experiences, working in remote parts of Papua New Guinea, are not that far off such a story line — minus the sharp stick and gaffer tape. And the reason he was able to do it was because of the fantastic training and medical connections he made while studying at the Otago Medical School. His reason for becoming a doctor was so he could do medical missionary work and, when he graduated from the medical school in 1965, everything he did was geared toward that dream. Over his 40-year career, he has worked at some of New Zealand's main hospitals, been a general practitioner, a psychiatric registrar at Dunedin Hospital and, more latterly, the director of Student Health and Counselling at the University of Otago. Interspersed with that was a significant amount of missionary work in places like the Papua New Guinea highlands and the Solomon Islands. His training at Otago had given him the skills to do medical wonders with relatively little equipment — a risk many modern doctors may not be so keen to take, he said. "There was a massive investment in anatomical knowledge at med school in our day. "I suspect with the advent of scans and so on, the emphasis these days has shifted more to the analysis of scans to work out what is happening inside. "X-rays were very helpful for us, but you still had to imagine much. "Things tend to be a bit more concrete now and somewhat sorted. There is more of an emphasis on specialisation now. "I am a strange specimen. I have done many Caesarean sections by torchlight in Papua New Guinea because of power failures — there was no-one else to do it. "I have given thousands of anaesthetics and used gases, intubation, muscle relaxants, and spinal anaesthesia. "GPs, as a rule these days, don't do anaesthesia. That is a specialist area. "I was also doing acute abdominal surgery, laparotomies, removing bits of spear and arrows as well as bullets from people, but that again is not a GP area." He said he often had a textbook out in front of him, to help him do surgery that he had not done before. "I also was on the radio a lot, getting advice from specialists, sometimes as far away as Auckland. "Plastics and burns were frightening, especially in children who fell into fires and needed skin grafts. "The help from specialists far away was fabulous — colleagueship was very, very important. "It may be feasible to do these things in a more sophisticated society, but not in a war zone, or in the developing world." By comparison, trainee doctor Yuvraj Sandhu, who will graduate from the Otago Medical School at the end of this year, said he, too, was also aiming to work in emergency medicine but prehaps without the risks that Dr Strang was forced to take. Mr Sandhu said he and his fellow students still practise procedures on each other, but he believed the things they were allowed to do to each other now, "are a lot tamer than back in Dr Strang's day". "We learnt how to put our very first intravenous cannulas in and take bloods by practising on each other. "Then we moved on to patients. But it is very limited to just that. "Any kind of procedure that might be deemed too much more invasive than a needle going into the skin is something that us, as medical students, will probably not practise on each other." He recalled how daunting it was, trying to put the needle in the right place. The thought of harming a patient is a "scary one". Dr Strang said in his day, they used to practise on each other a lot. "We would have a superviser to make sure we were not going to dislocate a shoulder or other joint. "There was a 'reality' about it." Mr Sandhu said today's students were taught a lot about practising "evidence-based medicine", rather than the more "textbook-based" learning in the internet-free era. "Medical knowledge at present is estimated to double every three to four years, which is insane to think about." While there have been many changes in the way medical students are trained at the Otago Medical School, many things remain the same. Mr Sandhu said what made Otago so special was the student culture that came with being there and having a hospital that prided itself in being not just a healthcare provider, but also a teaching institution. "What's meant the most to me are the friendships and relationships I've built. "Coming down to Otago as the only student from my high school was daunting, but the people I've met have become my best support system." Dr Strang agreed. He said the relationships and support network built during his time there remained a good source of support and information throughout his career. "The most memorable thing about training at Otago Med School was the companionship and support from fellow students — both in work and in play. "My closest friends were all climbers, and we were away climbing a lot. "It was a wonderful release from our study, and we had an understanding that if we got more than a C pass on an assessment, we had not done enough climbing/mountaineering ... and we were climbing very seriously." Both said the special feeling a doctor got from helping someone in need had also remained over the decades. Mr Sandhu said speaking with patients during some of the most significant moments of their lives was an honour. "Whether it's being in the room when a baby is born, or with someone in their final moments, it's incredibly humbling. "I went into medicine wanting to help people, but I never realised just how much impact you can have, even as a student. "Just talking to someone, making them feel heard, and learning from their stories has made this journey all the more meaningful. "I've come to believe that kindness is one of the greatest strengths a person can have." Dr Strang and Mr Sandhu are among more than 300 doctors from around the world who have returned to Dunedin for the Otago Medical School's 150th anniversary, which starts today. The event celebrates 150 years of medical teaching, clinical training, research and innovation across the three University of Otago campuses years of medical teaching, clinical training, research and innovation across the three University of Otago campuses — Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington — with a range of events, including academic sessions and tours of the present facilities. It will also provide the perfect opportunity for classes to reunite and remember what the students got up to.
