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Returned 2005-2006 Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy Dr Rhys Jones (Ngāti Kahungunu) travels around the country next week to report the findings of his year-long research in the United States into racial and ethnic inequalities in health care, a key focus of health policy in both the New Zealand and the US.
Dr Jones, Senior Lecturer at Te Kupenga Hauora Māori - the University of Auckland's department of Māori Health, spent 12 months at Harvard Medical School examining American case studies of interventions designed to reduce ethnic inequalities in health care. His research took a particular focus on chronic disease management, having identified cardiovascular disease as an example of where inequalities exist in both countries. "Māori have higher morbidity and mortality from heart disease and yet receive vital services at a lower rate than non-Māori," said Dr Jones. "The African-American population in the US experience similar issues and there has been some work looking at the potential of quality improvement initiatives to reduce inequalities in health care." Dr Jones will report his findings on the effectiveness of such initiatives and their potential application in New Zealand at three public seminars chaired by Stephen McKernan, Director-General of Health and New Zealand Representative for the Harkness Fellowships programme. Offered by American private foundation The Commonwealth Fund, Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy are valued over US$100,000 and allow mid-career health professionals from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Germany to spend up to 12 months in the US, conducting original research and working with leading American health policy experts. Earlier this week, The Commonwealth Fund ranked New Zealand's health system ahead of the United States on all of five different measures of performance - quality, access, efficiency, equity and healthy lives - despite New Zealand's system being funded to only one-third of the health care expenditure per capita of the American system. Both countries, however, were outranked by Germany, the United Kingdom
and Australia in overall performance in the six country study published
on the Commonwealth Fund website - www.commonwealthfund.org ENDS
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