Educating for Equity (E4E)

About us

Educating for Equity is about how health professional education can reduce disparities in chronic disease care and improve outcomes for indigenous populations.

Indigenous people in Canada, Australia and New Zealand experience a greater burden of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and mental illness than non-Indigenous people. Indigenous patients tend to receive poorer quality health care than non-Indigenous people, partly due to 'health professional factors', such as clinical decision-making, communication and engagement with patients and families.

Currently little is known about how educational approaches influence the health professional factors which contribute to poor outcomes in Indigenous health, or about what approaches work best. The Educating for Equity project will help contribute to improving health professionals' knowledge, attitudes and behaviours, plus share experiences and approaches to Indigenous health teaching and learning in the area of chronic disease.

The project is an international collaboration between Australia, New Zealand and Canada, under an International Collaborative Indigenous Health Research Partnership grant (ICIHRP). Funded for 5 years, in New Zealand the study is a collaboration between Māori researchers from the University of Auckland and the University of Otago. The project is a significant undertaking, with 26 named investigators, most of whom are Indigenous, and all of whom are leaders in Indigenous health education, research and in clinical practice and public health.

The project will:

• Map current medical educational curricula and contexts in the two institutions
• Review literature and use key informant interviews to identify underpinning philosophical and educations principles, core theories and concepts
• Conduct qualitative interviews and focus groups with learners, educators, patients and other stakeholders to identify how, and under what conditions, educational interventions can impact on chronic disease care for Indigenous populations
• Develop a chronic disease framework and educational module and method to evaluate different approaches across settings and between countries
• Communicate the findings in a range of health professional education settings

Our people

University of Otago

• Joanne Baxter
• Cameron Lacey; MIHI at Christchurch
• Suzanne Pitama
• Tania Riddell
• Bridget Robson

University of Auckland

• Elana Curtis from He Kupenga Hauora Māori
• Rhys Jones
• Papaarangi Reid