O’Sullivan wins elite uni award

Respected Far North doctor Lance O’Sullivan will be presented with a top award from Auckland university this week.

The Kaitaia based Maori health advocate is to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award by the University of Auckland for his leadership and innovation.

‘‘It’s a huge honour to get this award and I’m really proud of the university and the medical education I had there,’’ O’Sullivan says.

‘‘This is a milestone for me – I was the first to attend university from my father’s family and to be considered a worthy graduate of this university is an incredible honour.’’

With wife Tracey, O’Sullivan established low-cost medical clinic Te Kohanga Whakaora, as well as a school-based health clinic and an initiative fixing rundown houses, going outside his GP role to stop health problems early.

He is determined to give young Northland Maori children a better start in life, as well as showing them that they can rise above the disadvantage of poverty and the ill-health it can create.

He has led the way in delivering medtech solutions to help combat poor access to healthcare for often isolated lowincome communities.

One of the diseases of poverty in New Zealand is rheumatic fever; we have one of the highest rates in the developed world. Prevention can stop a child developing rheumatic heart disease.

When O’Sullivan and his wife Tracy arrived in Kaitaia, rheumatic fever was rife and children were developing rheumatic heart disease.

The couple established the MOKO Foundation in 2013, and the MOKO programme - a schoolbased service focused on preventing rheumatic fever.

Now mobile technology has enabled iMOKO, a low-cost broadband initiative enabling parents to ask questions, and get advice.

In the past year, O’Sullivan and his team have worked hard to spread iMOKO and it’s now in 40 primary schools, kohanga reo, and early learning centres from Northland to Auckland, involving more than 20,000 young people.