Occupational
Medicine Staff
Teaching Staff
Dr Robin Griffiths, Senior Lecturer, University of Otago, NZ
Dr Griffiths is the Academic Coordinator of occupational medicine and aviation medicine courses at the Wellington School of Medicine, University of Otago, New Zealand which enrolls students around the world in its distance learning programme. Rob holds consultancies to the Airways Corporation of NZ, the Transport Accident Commission, the Accident Compensation Corporation, Emirates and Etihad Airlines and other agencies around the world. He was previously Chief Medical Officer of the NZ Ministry of Transport and a lecturer in aviation medicine in the Royal Air Force, UK.
Contact information for Dr Robin Griffiths
Dr Chris Stewart-Patterson, Senior Lecturer, University of Otago, Vancouver
Dr. Stewart-Patterson works as a consultant in disability evaluation and occupational medicine to insurers, legal firms, unions and number of companies, including the Workers Compensation Board of British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and both Provincial and Federal Government Occupational Health Programs. He has extensive experience and expertise in the facilitation of early return to work and specializes in return to work evaluations for safety critical/sensitive occupations such as police, correction officers, fire fighters, coast guard and railway personnel. He frequently lectures both locally and internationally on medical disability evaluation.
He is certified by the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners and is a past instructor for the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine lecturing on assessment of psychiatric disability in workers. In addition, Dr Stewart-Patterson is a clinical instructor in the Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia and a senior lecturer in disability evaluation at Wellington School of Medicine, University of Otago.
Dr Nick Kendall, Senior Lecturer, University of Otago, London
Dr Nicholas Kendall trained as a clinical psychologist and now works as a health service consultant based in London. He works in evidence-based healthcare, and psychosocial contributions to musculoskeletal pain problems. He has research interests in occupational rehabilitation, musculoskeletal medicine, and spine surgery. He served previously as manager for evidence-based healthcare with the Accident Compensation Corporation in NZ, as a senior lecturer in orthopaedics & musculoskeletal medicine, and as clinical director of a large multidisciplinary pain service. While serving as chairman of the NZ low back pain project he coined the term “yellow flags” to describe risk factors for work loss and wrote a guideline on this topic.
Dr Mark Newson-Smith, Senior Lecturer, University of Otago, UAE
Dr Newson-Smith was trained at the Welsh National School of Medicine, Cardiff winning a prize and scholarship award for projects on respiratory hazards to coal miners. He spent 11 years in the Royal Navy as an Occupational Physician working in ships and submarines and dockyards gaining a wide range of experience in occupational medicine finishing his time in the Navy as Senior Medical Officer (Submarines) at the Institute of Naval Medicine. He then worked in the private sector in the United Kingdom providing occupational health advice to government agencies such as the Environment Agency, the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food and the National Health Service Pensions Agency along with a range of private companies such as banks, manufacturing and transport companies and a zoo.
He joined the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, UAE University, Al-Ain in 2001 working on teaching and research for over two years before joining ADMA-OPCO, an offshore oil and gas company in Abu Dhabi for a further two years as Senior Medical Officer (Occupational Health), He is currently the Chief Medical Officer for ENOC responsible for running their range of occupational health services. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine London and both the Australian and American Colleges of Legal Medicine. He has a Masters Degree in Occupational Health (Birmingham) and one in Legal Medicine (Cardiff). He has published an number of academic papers and continues to lecture at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Academic Advice
The
Academic Co-ordinator for overall occupational medicine courses at Otago is Dr
Robin Griffiths (contact information)
"As the Academic Co-ordinator, I am responsible for ensuring that your
learning needs are met, your academic questions are answered, and that you feel
well connected to the study programme for the course you are enrolled in. Feel
free to contact me at any time".
While Rob may not be your actual paper teacher or supervisor, he is responsible for the overall operation of the occupational medicine courses. If your question is specific to a particular paper, you may wish to contact the relevant paper tutor. Otherwise please contact Rob for a response to your questions or requests.
Contact information for Dr Robin Griffiths
Administrative Aspects
Katherine Harris (contact information) is the
Programme Manager for all occupational medicine courses.
She is responsible for making sure that you are properly enrolled, (in collaboration with the Registry), that you receive your relevant course information, and that your personal details for email and teleconferences are correct. The Programme Officer is responsible for the day to day course administration and should be notified of any change in your address or contact information, or significant absences.
Contact information for Katherine Harris
Enrolment Aspects
The actual administration of the enrolment process is managed by the Otago University Registry in Dunedin.
Specific information on enrolment in Occupational Medicine courses is available from here.
General information about the university of Otago is available on the University web page. An enrolment guide, for the University of Otago, and an application for enrolment can be also accessed on line here.
Occupational Medicine Staff