Healthcare systems expert to take up visiting professorship

Healthcare systems expert to take up NZ-UK Link Foundation visiting professorship

Robin Gauld, Professor of Health Policy and director of the Centre for Health Systems at the University of Otago, has been named the 2014 NZ-UK Link Foundation Visiting Professor. He will be based at the School of Advanced Study (SAS), University of London from September to December, and will give his inaugural lecture in October.

When accepting the appointment, Professor Gauld, who was educated at Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Hong Kong, said he was ‘deeply honoured and delighted to have been awarded the Visiting Professorship’.

He is a highly respected authority on health systems and an award-winning author, with research interests that include comparative health policy, clinical governance and health information technology. Currently also a Senior Fellow at the Boston University Health Policy Institute, Professor Gauld has lectured and held research posts at universities in Hong Kong, Texas and Harvard.

During his tenure with SAS, Professor Gauld’s series of four lectures will analyse the movement of healthcare professionals between New Zealand and the UK – examining the roles migrant professionals play in defining and shaping healthcare in their adopted countries.

‘My aim is to examine the flow of healthcare professionals between the UK and New Zealand, especially what drives this flow and the impact on one another’s healthcare system,’ said Professor Gauld.

‘I plan to delve into important questions around how migrant professionals shape healthcare in their new land, such as what influences and improvements those from the NHS have brought to New Zealand and vice-versa; and are there methods for enhancing the flow of knowledge migrant professionals offer. I look forward to the opportunity the Visiting Professorship provides to pursue these issues, and to contributing to the mission of the Foundation and to the academic community in London later this year when I take up the Professorship.’

Sir Graeme Davies, Chairman of the NZ-UK Link Foundation said: ‘Professor Gauld comes to the UK at a very important time as the NHS is under close scrutiny in a number of quarters. I have no doubt that he will add significantly to the debate as it is taken forward in the time ahead.’

'The NZ-UK Link Foundation visiting professorship has already established itself as a valuable means by which scholars and policy makers in the UK can benefit from the comparative perspective of distinguished counterparts from New Zealand,’ said Professor Philip Murphy, director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. ‘Professor Gauld's lectures will extend this perspective to the key area of health policy. SAS provides a forum in which scholars from across the world can meet and exchange ideas, and we are delighted that Professor Gauld will be able to contribute to that dialogue.'

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