Te rōpū taki kaitohutohu Māori , Māori Advisory Caucus
PHARMAC are privileged to have a number of highly experienced and knowledgeable advisors in relation to Māori health.
Meet some of those advisors below.
Kura Denness
Kura Denness MBA CA has a background in corporate finance. She is Chair of the following organisations: Tui Ora Limited, Hauora Taranaki PHO Limited, and Te Aroha Medcare, a low cost, high needs GP practice. In addition, she is a Director of Medical Laboratory Science Board, Medical Sciences Secretariat, and on the Taranaki DHB. She is also a trustee of various iwi organisations, and negotiator for the Te Atiawa Iwi Authority in the land claims settlement process.
Matiu Dickson: Consumer Advisory Caucus
“Mahia te mahi, mena he painga mo te iwi.”
(Do what needs to be done if there is a benefit in it for the people.)
Mr Matiu Dickson BA LLB DipTch Auck LLM Waikato
Matiu Dickson (deputy chair) Consumer Advisory Committee, and Māori Advisory Caucus has been an advisor to PHARMAC for a number of years.
Matiu’s tribal affiliation is to the iwi of Ngaiterangi of Tauranga Moana. His hapū is Ngaitukairangi and his marae is Hungahungatoroa marae. Matiu is a senior law lecturer at Waikato University. He is also an associate Dean Maori and acting Chairperson.
Matiu is the chair of the Hamilton urban authority and Maori Health Provider, Te Runanga o Kirikiriroa. He is also a member of the Hillcrest High School Board of Trustees. Though he is working in the Tainui (Waikato) area, Matiu retains strong links to his Tauranga Moana tribal area.
Matiu has an extensive knowledge of Maori tikanga and cultural practice of his iwi. He is an authority on kapa haka and the composition of waiata, judging at national and regional kapa haka festivals. Matiu lives in Hamilton and is married to Helen; they have six children.
George Laking, Pharmacology and Therapeutics Advisory Group
MBChB (Otago 1992), BMedSci (Otago 1990), FRACP, PhD (London 2005), MD (Manchester 2009)
Te Whakatōhea
Regional Blood and Cancer Service, Auckland DHB
georgel@adhb.govt.nz
George is a Medical Oncologist at Auckland District Health Board. He mainly treats people with cancers of the digestive system, melanoma (Glossary description: Melanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes which are found predominantly in skin but also in the bowel and the eye (see uveal melanoma). It is one of the rarer types of skin cancer but causes the majority of skin cancer related deaths.), and sarcoma, also young adults.
George and his whānau spent seven years in England, where he studied the blood supply of tumours using PET scanning. As part of this he co-authored a Health Technology Assessment of PET for diagnosis and staging of cancer (Glossary description: Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth (division beyond the normal limits), invasion (intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis (spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood).), which led in turn to his PhD studies in the economics of diagnosis, and work for Pharmac on the economics and ethics of funding High Cost Medicines.
Back in Aotearoa George now sits on the Pharmacology and Therapeutics Advisory Committee, which advises Pharmac about value-for-money of medicines and certain other funded health products. He also sits on PTAC’s Cancer Treatments and Diabetes (Glossary description: Diabetes is a syndrome of disordered metabolism, usually due to a combination of hereditary and environmental causes, resulting in abnormally high blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia).) Subcommittees.
He is interested in economic ways of targeting treatment to smaller populations – something that is overlooked in commercial health research because it would seem less profitable than treating everyone. He is also involved in clinical cancer research at the University of Auckland. His doctoral studies involved computer models written in the languages [R] and WinBUGS.
Kei te tautoko Hōri i Te Whaioranga, Pharmac’s Maori Responsiveness Strategy Action Plan. Access to medicines is too often via paper roads. Haere e whai i te waewae o Uenuku, kia ora ai te tangata.