Wellington Professor Kevin Dew has dedicated his 21-year research career to helping understand the sociology of health and illness in New Zealand, especially the inequalities in our health care system.
That commitment has been recognised with an award for his outstanding contribution to health research excellence as an established researcher from the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC).
HRC Chief Executive Professor Kath McPherson presented Professor Dew with the award at a special ceremony at Victoria University of Wellington’s Law School this evening. The ceremony celebrates research excellence at Victoria University of Wellington and 25 years of the HRC.
Professor Dew has been involved with 12 HRC-funded studies since 2002, ranging from identifying factors that enhance and hinder Māori health development to tracking communication between health professionals and patients in primary care.
One of Professor Dew’s main areas of research has focused on trying to understand the significant inequalities in cancer survival between Māori and non-Māori by looking at decision making in multidisciplinary teams, the cancer consultation process, and patient accounts of their cancer journey.
“Rather than overt discrimination being an issue that we should attend to, our research on the cancer journey shows that a number of ‘small’ influences can lead to inequities in cancer care, such as how health practitioners categorise people and a potential clash of understandings in relation to the roles that people take on when they enter the hospital system,” says Professor Dew.
Professor McPherson says Professor Dew’s detailed examination of the interactions between health professionals and patients has drawn heavily on conversation analysis, an approach that he has pioneered in New Zealand’s health care settings.
“As a result of this approach, Kevin co-founded and is co-director of the Applied Research on Communication in Health group based at Wellington Medical School. This group has built up a large collection of health professional and patient interactional data that is a very valuable resource for New Zealand’s research community,” says Professor McPherson.
Professor Dew says he was “bowled over” to get this award.
“I’m delighted that this award has gone to a sociologist, what’s more, a sociologist who has devoted his efforts to understanding social practices and their consequences. I think this signals that theoretically informed and methodologically sophisticated sociological research can sit alongside epidemiological research, clinical research and other forms of research that have traditionally received this sort of accolade,” says Professor Dew.
Victoria University’s Dr Kirsten Smiler (Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Rongowhakaata, Te Whakatōhea) was also honoured with a special acknowledgement for health research excellence as an emerging researcher for her work helping Māori deaf and hearing impaired tamariki (children) and their whānau.
Dr Smiler began her research career with the Deaf Studies Research Unit and the Health Services Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington. She has since progressed her career with the support of a HRC Masters scholarship and PhD research fellowship, and currently, a HRC Erihapeti Rehu-Murchie Postdoctoral Scholarship.
Over the past 25 years there have been seismic shifts in support for deaf children in New Zealand, however, a question mark still looms over whether these shifts are enough for Māori deaf children. Dr Smiler’s postdoctoral study is contributing to a whānau ora approach to early intervention services for Māori deaf and hearing-impaired tamariki and their whānau.
“To have the HRC recognise my research through this special acknowledgement is almost surreal given my childhood experiences of being socialised in a language and culture that were not recognised – New Zealand Sign Language and Deaf culture – and wanting to learn my own language, Te Reo Māori, and yet having very little access outside educational contexts,” says Dr Smiler.
“For me, this work is an acknowledgement of the importance of whānau, language, and culture on our overall health and wellbeing. I feel extremely privileged to have been able to do this work.”