Young doctor takes aim at poor child health

Young doctor takes aim at poor child health

Young Auckland paediatric registrar Dr Nick Fancourt has been selected for a prestigious International Fulbright Science and Technology Award to complete a PhD in the United States of America. The award is valued at over NZ$350,000 and will cover the full cost of Nick’s doctoral study in public health at a leading US university, with Harvard and Johns Hopkins Universities at the top of his wish list. He aims to study towards improving health and development outcomes for children from New Zealand and abroad, particularly those from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

Nick Fancourt was struck by the obvious relationship between children’s environment and health as a medical student. While on paediatric experience with a community nurse in the small Taranaki town of Inglewood, he encountered a mother of four burning soiled nappies for heat, whose children each suffered from preventable illnesses including pneumonia and asthma. The well-travelled doctor has further witnessed the link between poverty and poor health on trips to China, Pakistan and Gambia, and undertook a three month internship with the World Health Organisation in Geneva during his studies at the University of Otago. He is a volunteer for the Child Action Poverty Group and holds a Master of Bioethics and Health Law in addition to his medical degree.

Nick hopes his study in the US will help inform public policy to improve the health of society’s most vulnerable children. “I’ll be studying the patterns of and influences on childhood diseases, particularly how they are affected by social factors such as poverty,” he explains. “One in five children in New Zealand live in poverty, with these children suffering from more disease than others. I hope the skills I gain will be able to inform change on our poor child health statistics. Understanding these issues is part of the key to improving health for all.”

Nick is one of just 43 recipients selected for 2011 International Fulbright Science and Technology Awards out of 174 aspiring scientists nominated by Fulbright commissions and US embassies in 81 countries. The awards are funded by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and are designed to be “the most prestigious international scholarship in science and technology”. Fulbright New Zealand is proud that six nominees from New Zealand have been selected in the five years this prestigious programme has been running.

ENDS

Fulbright New Zealand was established in 1948 to promote mutual understanding through educational and cultural exchanges between New Zealand and the United States of America. The Fulbright programme offers a range of prestigious awards for New Zealand and American graduate students, academics, artists and professionals to study, research and teach in each other’s countries. Fulbright New Zealand offers over 70 exchange awards each year – half to students and half to scholars – and more than 1,400 New Zealanders and 1,100 Americans have benefited from a Fulbright award to date. The programme is mainly funded by the US and New Zealand governments with additional funding from award sponsors, private philanthropists and alumni donors.

See www.fulbright.org.nz for details about Fulbright awards and how to apply, or download a Media Fact Sheet of further background information here: www.fulbright.org.nz/about/mediafactsheet.pdf

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