Whakatāne paediatrician, Dr John Malcolm, has been awarded the 2015 Royal Australasian College of Physicians Rural and Remote Medal for 25 years of service in the Bay of Plenty region.
Dr Malcolm was nominated by his colleagues who cited his contribution to Māori health which helps keep rural medicine in the spotlight.
He believes this success is one of teamwork rather than an individual effort, "It flags rural and provincial health needs. A lot of our work focuses on metropolitan services being accessible to rural patients and part of that includes measures to ensure clinical workforce recruitment and retention."
A highlight of Dr Malcolm's career has been his involvement in work on acute rheumatic fever, especially the early indications of a probable decline in acute rheumatic fever rates in BOP he says.
Dr Malcolm says, moving forward, his focus will remain on serving rural and remote communities, "I am humbled and honoured by the award but if I was asked which I get the bigger kick out of, community recognition or peer recognition, I would say the community. You go to Taneatua and in a crowded room you're working with the EBPHA, public health, six iwi-based Hauora and other health providers helping improve the health of school kids, that's very gratifying."
The awards ceremony took place yesterday in Cairns, Australia.