Public Health Expert

Google Street View – A Useful Research Tool?

Public Health Expert • Jul 10, 2017

• Google Maps,
• Google Street View,
• Graffiti,
• infrastructure,
• litter,
• urban measures

Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Amber Pearson, Amanda Rzotkiewicz, A/Prof George Thomson Looking at Google Street View can be highly amusing. If you’ve ever wandered around a neighbourhood with Street View on Google Maps, you’ll have realised that everyone’s faces are blurred. Google is very concerned with privacy, so they’ve implemented an algorithm that finds out which parts of their photos … Read More

Let’s talk about taxing those sweet, sweet sugary drinks

Public Health Expert • Jul 05, 2017

• Sugar Tax,
• sugary drinks,
• sweetened sugary beverages,
• tax,
• Uncategorized

How much revenue would a New Zealand sugary drink tax raise? And how might be best to do it? Last week a FIZZ symposium was run in Auckland. A key focus was moving New Zealand towards adopting a sugary drink tax. As part of the policy briefing prepared for this FIZZ Symposium, we were asked to estimate the revenue from … Read More

Only eight more years to go to 2025: Time for the NZ Government to step up its tobacco endgame

Public Health Expert • Jun 29, 2017

• endgame,
• Maori,
• smokefree,
• Smoking,
• tobacco

By Frederieke Sanne van der Deen, Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Christine Cleghorn, Dr Linda Cobiac, Dr Giorgi Kvizhinadze, Dr Nhung Nghiem, Prof Tony Blakely We have eight more years to go until 2025 – the year of the NZ Government’s Smokefree goal. NZ is not on track to achieve this goal, especially not for Māori. In this blog we discuss … Read More

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New Standardised Packaging Regulations: Some good steps, but many missed opportunities

Public Health Expert • Jun 28, 2017

• cigarettes,
• marketing,
• plain packaging,
• RYO,
• Smoking,
• tobacco

Professor Janet Hoek and Professor Philip Gendall The NZ Government’s recently released Standardised Packaging Regulations contain some important advances over Australia’s legislation, but they also miss opportunities to recognise tobacco industry innovations. This blog discusses changes that establish a new benchmark and why these are important, but also examines how the regulations could have gone further and suggests … Read More

Can pandemic threats justify border closure for island nations like NZ?

Public Health Expert • Jun 26, 2017

• Borders,
• Infectious disease,
• Pandemic,
• Travel

Professor Nick Wilson, Dr Matt Boyd, Dr Osman Mansoor, Professor Michael G Baker Countries prepare for future pandemic risks because of pandemic influenza, novel emerging infectious agents and possible synthetic bioweapons. In a study we just published in a journal, we explored the costs and benefits of complete border closure in NZ in response to new pandemic threats. We found … Read More

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Open data, transparency and power – role of the Virtual Health Information Network

Public Health Expert • Jun 14, 2017

• Big Data,
• Data,
• health data,
• IDI,
• Integrated Data Infrastructure,
• privacy,
• public health,
• VHIN,
• Virtual Health Information Network

Dr Andrea Teng, Dr Barry Milne, Mr Philip Walker, Prof Tony Blakely The NZ Government is showing strong leadership on data sharing. In this blog we describe some of the opportunities and the challenges in this new data environment. We focus on how the Virtual Health Information Network (VHIN) can contribute to stronger health research and therefore benefit the health … Read More

Ethnic inequalities in mortality in NZ and how to reduce them further

Public Health Expert • May 29, 2017

• all-cause mortality,
• ethnic inequalities,
• health inequalities,
• Maori,
• Mortality,
• Pacific

Dr George Disney, Dr Andrea Teng, June Atkinson, Frederieke Sanne van der Deen, Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Tony Blakely  In a study we just published, we found that whilst there have been declines in all-cause mortality rates, over time, for Māori, Pacific peoples and the European/Other ethnic group, there are still striking mortality gaps that need to be addressed. Read More

A 100 years ago: The worst year of the First World War for New Zealand

Public Health Expert • May 01, 2017

• conflict,
• dysentery,
• first world war,
• meningitis,
• military,
• Passchendaele,
• Pneumonia,
• tuberculosis,
• war,
• WWI

Professor Nick Wilson, University of Otago; Professor Glyn Harper, Massey University The year 1917 was the worst year of the First World War for New Zealand from a premature mortality perspective, with 5547 deaths. We have just presented on this topic at a Symposium at Te Papa (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa) and in this blog we summarise … Read More

Will liberalising nicotine availability increase quitting?

Public Health Expert • Apr 24, 2017

• e-cigarette,
• e-cigs,
• Nicotine,
• Smoking,
• smoking cessation,
• tobacco

Prof Janet Hoek, Mei-Ling Blank, Prof Nick Wilson, Lindsay Robertson, Dr Louise Marsh Do the New Zealand (NZ) Government’s proposed changes to liberalise the e-cigarette market set out a robust process for helping people who smoke to switch to e-cigarettes? In this blog, we discuss the proposed regulatory changes and explain some of the complex practices smokers must adopt … Read More

Is it time to pilot a test and treat programme for reducing the stomach cancer burden and inequalities in NZ?

Public Health Expert • Apr 18, 2017

• cancer,
• cost effectiveness,
• H. pylori,
• Maori,
• Pacific,
• QALY,
• Quality of life,
• screening,
• stomach cancer

Dr Andrea Teng, Dr Melissa McLeod, Professor Tony Blakely, Professor Nick Wilson  We have just published a modelling study on stomach cancer prevention in the international journal BMC Infectious Diseases (1). This blog briefly examines how a possible population screening programme, that tests and treats for infection by the bacteria Helicobacter pylori in the stomach, may be a cost-effective way to … Read More