The University of Otago’s department of medicine can play a positive collaborative role with the Southern District Health Board in the planned rebuild of Dunedin Hospital.
That is the view of Associate Prof Michael Schultz (49), who in July became head of the department, which is part of the university’s Dunedin School of Medicine (DSM).
He is not only an associate professor in medicine, in gastroenterology, but is also a consultant gastroenterologist at the Southern District Health Board (SDHB), holding a 50/50 joint position at the university and the board.
The future offered plenty of opportunities and challenges, he said.
And he has no doubt the department should work side-by-side with the health board and play a proactive role in the scheduled rebuild of Otago-Southland’s most sophisticated hospital, Dunedin Hospital.
That construction project would also involve shaping the way health services will be provided around the South in future.
The department, within the Dunedin school, and the SDHB were "joined at the hip" and the department was "one of the major providers of medical education".
"Our students need to be given the opportunity to experience the whole bandwidth of medical education from bench [science] to bedside [patient]."
Asked how the department could contribute to the hospital rebuild, Prof Schultz said Otago professors Barry Taylor, Peter Crampton and Gil Barbezat had commented in recent ODT stories that both institutions, the SDHB and the department of medicine, needed to "work together to make this a great place for patient care and education".
Prof Schultz has already established a teaching committee, chaired by rheumatologist Associate Prof Simon Stebbings, and is keen to expand international research exchanges.
"I would love to create a department where people feel they belong and are proud to be part of."
The research committee, instituted a couple of years ago, had done a "fantastic" job, and it was intended the teaching committee would do the same.
The new committee aimed to "harmonise" the department’s overall teaching, overcome fragmentation of effort and ensure students gained a positive experience from the department’s teaching.
This, in turn, would generate positive "word of mouth" about Dunedin medical teaching.
Previously the departmental deputy head, Prof Schultz said the department was already in "great shape, with a vibrant research and teaching culture".
That was due to the "tireless work and dedication" of his predecessor, Prof Rob Walker.
Prof Schultz said he was "very excited" about his role and would not have taken on the job unless he had been confident of a "positive outcome".
As director of the Gut Health Network, he had previously had a "taste of a leadership position" and had liked it.
He will become president of the New Zealand Society of Gastroenterology in November and aims to bring the society’s annual scientific meeting to Dunedin again, after a "very successful meeting" involving about 400 delegates in 2011.
The department of medicine was one of the DSM’s major departments, with about 100 staff.
About half were academics, including joint staff with the SDHB and full-time researchers.
The department delivered "great teaching" but the administration and the teaching philosophy were "very fragmented across the years potentially with gaps and duplication".
He was keen to "showcase this department as a highly successful and attractive workplace" by using modern social media and other means.
A Twitter account was being started to update people on the happenings in the department and potentially a new blog site, and he had just employed the department’s "first social media communicator".
And he hopes that boosting the department’s visibility as an attractive workplace will help overcome difficulties recruiting joint clinical staff who work at the university and Dunedin Hospital, and attract more postgraduate students from different disciplines — inside and outside medicine — to enhance the department’s research portfolio.
"The real challenge is to not just do business as usual but to critically look into processes etc. and see what can be changed and improved."
He also wants to work with the teaching committee to examine modern and innovative ways to teach medical students in the city, and expects electronic-based learning to take a leading role.
He was sharing the load with departmental deputy head Research Associate Prof Rachael Taylor who, as a very successful full-time researcher, would ensure basic science gets the "support and exposure" it needed in the department.
Working at the SDHB also meant working in a close relationship with the Dunedin School of Medicine.
He enjoyed a "great collaboration" with several scientists both inside and outside the department and "we work truly from bench to bedside".
As director of the Gut Health Network, he had been "very successful" in helping create a "fantastic clinical research unit", and a network including scientists, researchers, clinicians, patient support groups and the pharmaceutical industry to work on "things that matter".
In the current funding climate, this unit was "essential to provide my basic research interests with the necessary funding to continue".