New grants totaling nearly $300,000 will be used to focus on Māori health and improving equity in the Bay of Plenty.
Bay of Plenty District Health Board has received three Health Sector Research Collaboration Grants from the Health Research Council, which will help develop a framework for integrating technology and health, explore the use of technology to promote wellbeing among Māori and develop skills and expertise in kaupapa Māori research methods.
Health Research manager Charlie Stratton said the grants align with a new approach in planning, funding and delivering Bay health services through working closer with the people served.
Charlie Stratton, Dr Sarah Mitchell and Leigh Haldane. Photo / File
"To successfully deliver better health outcomes, we recognise the need to generate local evidence that will inform the way we deliver our healthcare services, and these grants play an important role in helping us to achieve this goal."
Stratton, along with executive director of Allied Health Dr Sarah Mitchell and Manukura executive director Te Pare ā Toi Marama Tauranga worked together on the proposal He Pou Oranga: Developing a framework for Integrating Technology and Health.
This project has been awarded a Research Activation Grant of $89,708.
"The activities funded through this grant outline how we will shape our research agenda with our Māori communities over the next 12 to 18 months," Stratton said.
The health board chairwoman Sharon Shea said addressing equity issues for Māori were a focus for the board.
"Grants such as these are incredibly important and help further our work in these areas."
Integration, Technology and LifeCurve™ researcher Leigh Haldane said the HRC Research Career Development Award of $109,600 would help develop the LifeCurve™ app, focusing on wellbeing among Māori.
Mariana Hudson. Photo / Supplied
"The grant will allow me to undertake important mahi on behalf of communities across the Bay of Plenty.
"I will be able to dedicate my time to working collaboratively with community partners in understanding what healthy ageing looks like from a Māori worldview, as well as what technology can be used to support people as they age.
"Together we will undertake co-design research informed by a kaupapa Māori philosophy to explore these concepts, as well as inform adaptations to the LifeCurve™ App that is aimed at empowering people to age well."
Pharmacist Mariana Hudson received an $83,000 Research Career Development Award to develop skills and expertise in kaupapa Māori research methodology.
"I am excited about the opportunity to contribute and influence change within the health sector and use a Kaupapa Māori research approach for the benefit of whānau," she said.
"As a pharmacist, to research and understand the impact of medication on Māori requires the establishment of partnership, to allow Māori to choose how we express tino rangatiratanga. It also needs the principle of active protection to ensure cultural safety and appropriateness."
The health board are partnering with The Centre for Health for some of these activities.
TCFH Director Dr Anna Rolleston and her team were highly experienced in health and wellbeing research and would support Hudson to develop key skills in kaupapa Māori research principles and co-design/mahi tahi.
The Health Sector Research Collaboration Grants are part of a suite of new research to be carried out by five DHBs around the country to drive health sector-led research that directly responds to health sector and community needs.
The grants, designed to upskill and empower healthcare organisations to conduct more research, are being piloted with DHBs with the aim of being extended to other health providers.
