Tireless worker in improving the health of children
DIANA Lennon ONZM, one of New Zealand’s leading doctors with a ‘‘limitless’’ determination to improve the lives of children, died suddenly last month.
Prof Lennon had a stellar career as a worldclass researcher, inspiring teacher and superb doctor.
Her efforts led to advances in the clinical care of children and those with infectious diseases, a change in government policy resulting in healthier state housing being built and vaccine development.
Colleague Prof Innes Asher said ‘‘Dinny’’ had an extremely long list of achievements in her highprofile career.
These included being named Plunket Woman of the Year in 1992, an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2005 for services to science, and the Dame Metge Medal of the Royal Society of NZ in 2008.
She also had her work published in about 265 publications, including 192 journal articles.
‘‘But Dinny was not one to collect and count these outputs, in fact she eschewed such processes,’’ Prof Asher said in an obituary for the University of Auckland where she worked with Prof Lennon.
‘‘Far more important to her was making a difference to the health of children, which she did in spades.’’
Graduating with bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery degrees from the University of Otago in 1972, she studied and worked abroad before serving as a specialist in paediatric infectious diseases at Starship and Middlemore hospitals and consulting around the country.
‘‘She was generous, her advice was soughtafter and it was always apt for the clinical care of children,’’ Prof Asher said.
Prof Lennon also played a lead role in important health issues affecting the country and shaping national vaccine policy.
This included being a key part of the team tackling the meningococcal B epidemic through the 1990s to 2000s.
She worked tirelessly at a national and international level to develop a vaccine before setting up clinical trials that culminated in the mass MeNZB vaccination programme in 2004 and 2005, Prof Asher said.
These efforts greatly reduced deaths and disability from meningococcal disease.
In 1991, she also ‘‘drew attention to the huge inequities in child health with her lecture entitled ‘Health in the ghetto’ ’’.
‘‘Subsequent research findings that crowding was the greatest risk factor for meningococcal disease led on to Housing NZ building larger, healthier state homes.’’
Prof Michael Baker, from the University of Otago, worked with her on research projects, including one in which they presented their findings together just days before she died.
He called her an ‘‘unforgettable figure in paediatrics’’.
He said specialists in paediatrics and public health now all accepted that the biggest single factor in infectious diseases in children was whether a person is born in a wealthy or deprived environment.
‘‘And Dinny contributed substantially to creating that awareness.’’
He said Prof Lennon could be staunch in her views but that proved one of her greatest assets because she persisted in pushing for change when others would give up.
‘‘I’m almost expecting her to come around the corner again and be as strong minded as ever,’’ he said.
‘‘I know at least one of my other colleagues said the same thing, it just seems unimaginable not to have her here being this absolutely staunch advocate for child health and doing the right thing.’’
Prof Asher also praised her colleague as an inspiring lecturer, teacher and mentor, who not only helped young Kiwi doctors but colleagues in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu.
‘‘Dinny was a feminist and set an example in her empowerment of women, and her appointment as one of the first women professors of paediatrics in New Zealand was fitting,’’ Prof Asher said.
‘‘At the time of this great tragedy, we send deepest sympathy to her family — her husband John Ormiston, children William and Harry, and their families. Her family was the centre of her world.’’