New professors for primary health care

The Wellington campus has welcomed four new professors in the Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice this year, reflecting the growing importance of the academic discipline.

The new primary health care professors are Ben Darlow, Maria Stubbe, Angela Ballantyne and Eileen McKinlay. Their promotions were announced in December, and took effect from 1 February. They were promoted alongside fellow Wellington academic Jason Gurney from the Department of Public Health.

The Head of the Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice, Professor Lynn McBain, says having four staff promoted to professor is hugely significant, with only about 15 primary health care professors across the entire country.

“Primary health care is an emerging academic discipline in the medical school, and has only been around for about 20 years,” she explains.

“Our General Practice Department in Wellington was first established as a unit within the Department of Medicine before becoming a stand-alone department in the 1990s and then evolving to Primary Health Care and General Practice. Since then we have been employing a broader range of academic staff, not just general practitioners.”

The four new professors all come from different backgrounds, and none are GPs. Ben is a musculoskeletal physiotherapy specialist, whose passion is supporting people to participate in healthy, active lives; Maria is a social scientist and applied sociolinguist who has published widely on research relating to health communication, health services, workplace language and discourse analysis; Angela is a bioethicist who writes on ethical issues related to clinical practice, data sharing and public health; and Eileen is a registered nurse who researches interprofessional collaborative practice in healthcare delivery.

Lynn says general practice has flourished with the recognition that access to high-quality primary healthcare improves health outcomes.

“Primary care is close to people in the community, it gives continuity of care which is really beneficial for people’s health and it allows that overall comprehensive care for patients. Primary care should be, and is in New Zealand, the basis of the health system.

“It has also become obvious that we need to move towards interprofessional team care, with staff who have a variety of skill sets.”

Lynn says being promoted to professorial level is a huge achievement for the four academic staff, who had to demonstrate they had made outstanding contributions and shown leadership in the areas of teaching, research and service during their career.

“It is quite a high bar to reach in New Zealand, and particularly at Otago University.

“We are just thrilled this has happened. I am very proud of them all.  And I hope it’s a bit of an inspiration, a goal for others, that they can see that promotion to professor is possible.”

The new primary health care professors will hold their Inaugural Professorial Lectures through the year, with Ben’s scheduled for 1 April, Maria’s to be held on 29 April, Angela’s on 26 August and Eileen’s on 23 September.