Lay summary
Academic Emergency Medicine is a relatively new discipline in NZ, even though emergency departments have long played a major role in healthcare delivery in NZ. There is an urgent need for better academic training to develop research capacity in NZ’s emergency departments. As recently-appointed inaugural Senior Lecturer in Emergency Medicine at the University of Auckland, and Co-Director of Emergency Research at Middlemore Hospital, I am committed to this task. My doctoral studies, based on the HRC-funded PIPPA Tamariki study, will investigate the role of antipyretics in the development of allergic conditions such as asthma and eczema, which are very common acute presentations in children and adults. This study will be the first to attempt large-scale primary prevention of asthma from birth by focusing on early management of febrile illness. It will increase my skills as a clinician-researcher, and the results will be relevant to all who care for young children.