The 2022 Future of Health Challenge, held with the support Te Papa Hauora and Pegasus Health, saw students from UC, Ara, and Otago University collaborating to tackle some of the challenges facing us in Aotearoa as we reimagine how we “do healthcare”.
Teams had two days to develop innovative proposals focused on one of three areas;
- The recruitment, education, and retention of an effective health workforce
- Improving the equity of how we deliver health services and equity of outcomes for everyone in Aotearoa
- Reducing the strain on our healthcare system by improving wellbeing and health in the wider community
Our amazing judges, Pete Townsend, Vince Barry, Cathy Andrew and Lisa Brennan were impressed by the teams’ ideas and are excited to see the innovation and creativity feeding into the sector.
Lisa Brennan, the Chief Executive of Pegasus, was so impressed with the cohort that she decided to double the prize pool in order to recognise two outstanding ideas with a shared first place.
- Winners ($2000 Prize)
- Hapū Hub – a maternal health and support hub built from the ground up to recognise the role of community, te ao Māori and close the gap in health outcomes for mothers.
Presented by Caley Hughes, Tessa Munday, Siâni Wyatt, and Ella Sims - Acorn – a programme to enable nurses educated overseas to identify and fill any gaps in their experience or education so they can become quickly and effectively become Registered Nurses in New Zealand to alleviate chronic shortages in the aged care sector.
Presented by Kylie Short, Sophie MacLaren, and Kirsten Gunn
- Hapū Hub – a maternal health and support hub built from the ground up to recognise the role of community, te ao Māori and close the gap in health outcomes for mothers.
- Runners Up ($1000 Prize)
- PAM – a training bus focused on empowering the rural health workforce by enabling high-quality, specific training programmes to come to them, minimising costs and downtime for rural practices.
Presented by Ann Pattison, Emzy Wheeldon, Brent Hollow, Nat Young - Let’s Talanoa – a programme designed to build trust and relationships between the health sector and Pasifika communities in Aotearoa in order to support public health programmes such as vaccinations.
Presented by Joanna Yu, Hannah Brand, Lu Hunter, and Alicia Esera
- PAM – a training bus focused on empowering the rural health workforce by enabling high-quality, specific training programmes to come to them, minimising costs and downtime for rural practices.
We are excited to be able to continue working with Te Papa Hauora and Pegasus Health to create opportunities for students to connect with the world beyond campus, gain experience, grow, meet new people, and start the process of having a real impact.
A special thank you to all of the mentors who gave up some of their Saturday to share their insight, expertise, and experience with the students. Ben Kepes, Laura Cullen, Debbie Munro, Christine Beasley, Sarah Lovell, Vaughan Broderick, Stephanie Woodrow, Michael McIlhone, and Fiona McLeod – it would not have been the same without you!
And a final congratulations to everyone who took part!