Graduate emulating trailblazing great-grandmother

The great-granddaughter of one of medicine’s global female trailblazers wore a very special gown when she graduated with a PhD on Saturday.

Dr Carol Atmore is the University of Otago’s Department of General Practice and rural Health Head of Department, and is also a practicing GP in Dunedin.

That she’s added a PhD to her long list of achievements is perhaps not surprising, considering her career to date.

As well as being a medical doctor for 30 years she has also been a chief medical officer and elected board member for the West Coast DHB, is chair of Alliance South and has chaired numerous committees – including her current chairing of the South Island DHBs Alliance’s Strategic Planning and Integration Team.

“I like to take on new challenges and learn about different things. The [PhD] opportunity arose and I was interested in doing some research to see what academic life was like. And I liked it.”

Her red graduation gown was evidence that sort of tenacity and talent is a family trait. The gown was the same one worn 126 years ago by her great-grandmother Dr Emily Winifred Dickson. In 1893 Dr Dickson became the first female Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. In the process she became the first female fellow of any college of surgeons in Ireland and Great Britain.

Dr Atmore says her great-grandmother’s gender meant she faced stiff resistance from the medical community.

“My understanding is that she stayed home after school to look after her sick mother, and then went to the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland as Trinity College wouldn’t accept her.

“When we were looking through her archives in April this year there were numerous letters written by men who did not want to work with her, be examined by her for their medical studies, or admit her to organisations. I saw a rejection letter from the British Medical Association that she couldn’t be admitted because she was a woman.”

After a successful career as a surgeon Dr Dickson “gave it all up” when she got married, Dr Atmore says.

“And maybe 20 years later she returned [to work] but not as a surgeon. She worked as a GP, a psychiatrist and a public health physician – as we would call the roles now – so she was a true generalist.”

That “generalist” approach to medicine is something Dr Atmore is championing in her own career, and is evident in her PhD research, titled “Exploring and Improving Hospital Care Quality for New Zealand”.

It explores important factors in providing and improving high quality health care for rural communities, particularly when people required hospital care.

It also includes a “generalist” framework for improving health care quality for rural communities, focussing on people’s access, health service networks between larger and smaller centres, developing a capable workforce, Māori focused service design, community participation, rural-appropriate quality measures, and whole system planning and resourcing.

While Dr Atmore never met her great-grandmother, her “contribution to medicine in Ireland and the UK” is something she is very proud of.

“I’m really proud that she is my tipuna, and I feel a connection with her despite having never met her.”