The University of Auckland (UoA) has officially launched New Zealand’s first research centre dedicated to Pacific health and leadership. Te Poutoko Ora a Kiwa* (the Centre for Pacific and Global Health) is one of seven new transdisciplinary research centres at the university but the only one focusing on transforming health outcomes for Pacific peoples in Aotearoa, the Pacific region and beyond.
Hosted by UoA’s Faculty of Medical and Health Science, the new centre is led by researchers Sir Collin Tukuitonga (KNZM), inaugural associate dean Pacific and associate professor of public health, Associate Professor Judith McCool and senior research fellow Dr Roannie Ng Shiu. The former director-general of health, Professor Sir Ashley Bloomfield, is advisory board chair.
Sir Collin said the centre will foster cultural exchange, empower local communities and provide training opportunities to develop and strengthen Pacific research leaders. The Te Poutoko Ora a Kiwa team will research health issues affecting Pasifika, including diabetes, heart disease, obesity and outbreaks such as Covid-19. One of its first programmes, ‘State of Eye Health in the Pacific’, was launched earlier this year and is being led by Associate Professor Jacqueline Ramke.
The Pacific eye health programme is delivered in partnership with UoA and The Fred Hollows Foundation New Zealand and will work closely with Pacific Island governments. The five-year research programme aims to supply Pacific governments and decision-makers with the evidence they need to establish affordable, effective, efficient, equitable and sustainable policies to strengthen and sustain their eye health systems.
With the support of Pacific ophthalmologists and nurses, the first phase will apply strategies from the World Health Organization’s Guide for Action and review existing Pacific eye health literature, eyecare situation analysis and rapid assessment of avoidable blindness in Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa.
