Dr Kimiora Henare
School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Waipapa Taumata Rau (The University of Auckland) Dr Kimiora Henare (Ngāti Haua, Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Kahu) is a cancer biologist specialising (at the benchtop) in the tumour microenvironment and tumour immunology to explore strategies to enhance tumour-directed immunity; a continuation of his doctoral studies at The University of Auckland. Alongside his lab-based biomedical research, Kimiora worked with the NETwork! Project to develop a roadmap for Māori engagement for clinical cancer genomics which has served as a scaffold for several other clinical cancer genomics projects, including the Rakeiora project and MoST-NZ. In addition to his biomedical research expertise, Kimiora teaches and advises on Responsiveness to Māori and ethics for the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences (FMHS), University of Auckland, holds advisory and governance roles for clinical and biomedical research, and serves as a member of Hei Āhuru Mōwai (Māori Cancer Leadership Aotearoa) and a co-convenor of SING-Aotearoa.
|
Māori involvement in Clinical Cancer Genomics Research
Genomics has the potential to change the way we live in and engage with the world. In healthcare, genomics-guided "precision medicine" is an obvious example. There are already clear examples of benefits to patients living with cancer. But is everyone benefiting? Or in our excitement for reaching this potential, are we at risk of widening already existing inequities?
In this talk, Kimiora will briefly revisit the four domains of strengthening responsiveness to Māori in health research (as described by Reid et al. 2017 in NZMJ), signpost to some equity-focused approaches to clinical trial design and health research, and as a primer for the Panel session that follows, lay out the challenge ahead for ensuring that clinical trials and clinical genomics research contributes positively to achieving health equity in Aotearoa.
In this talk, Kimiora will briefly revisit the four domains of strengthening responsiveness to Māori in health research (as described by Reid et al. 2017 in NZMJ), signpost to some equity-focused approaches to clinical trial design and health research, and as a primer for the Panel session that follows, lay out the challenge ahead for ensuring that clinical trials and clinical genomics research contributes positively to achieving health equity in Aotearoa.