Professor Frank Frizelle receives NZMA’s 2018 Chair’s Award

NZMA’s highest accolade the Chair’s award goes to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to Health in New Zealand and this year it goes to Professor Frank Frizelle.

Frank embodies outstanding achievement.  He has and continues to make a significant contribution to both the health of New Zealanders and also the standard of medical research and publishing in New Zealand and worldwide.

He is Head of Department for the Department of Surgery, University of Otago, Christchurch as well as Professor of Colorectal Surgery at Christchurch Hospital, and a number of other fellowships.

Most recently, he led the research team that discovered links to bowel cancer from a bacterial toxin carried in the gut. This discovery means people can be screened for the bug and a lifesaving vaccine can be developed - a world first.

Professor Frizelle is also the Editor in chief of the New Zealand Medical Journal, the leading medical research publication in New Zealand, and a member of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

The ICMJE had this to say: “ICMJE is a relatively small and carefully selected group of general medical journal editors. Frank’s contributions have been vital to the ICMJE ‘s mission and his counsel is valued by all members.   He has helped reshape the landscape of clinical science with initiatives in, for example clinical trial registration and data sharing.  He has helped improve the conduct and reporting of medical science throughout the world. We are honoured to have him as a colleague and a friend.“

Frank has had over 400 research articles published in peer reviewed journals.