Four of New Zealand’s leading heart and lung health charities have merged into one organisation, using their launch to promote life-saving heart imaging technology while training specialists to use it.
Health professionals and advocates gathered at Auckland’s Pullman Hotel alongside Health Minister Simeon Brown, who officially opened the event before touring a training room where attendees were being certified to use two advanced heart imaging technologies — Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS).
The newly formed Cardiovascular and Respiratory Foundation New Zealand (Tuia Manawa Hā) combines the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ, Kia Manawanui Trust – The Heart of Aotearoa, the Lung Foundation and the Bronchiectasis Foundation.
The foundation says OCT and IVUS can reduce cardiac deaths by 45 percent by providing detailed images from inside arteries, allowing specialists to make more informed treatment decisions.
Māori suffer most from heart and lung disease
Chief executive Letitia Harding says Māori are among those most affected by heart and lung disease, and she hopes the technology will be adopted across New Zealand to improve outcomes.
“85 percent of lung cancer is attributed to smoking and we know that Māori 3 to 4 times more likely to get lung cancer because of that long history of big tobacco’s tentacles,
“We know that for Māori they die 10 years younger than European when it comes to heart disease, it’s shocking,” she says.
The median age of death for Māori is 69, compared with 85 for Europeans.
Long-standing advocate and kaihautū Sir John Clarke says more needs to be done specifically for Māori.
“Tērā pea me whakaritea tētahi rōpū tohunga hauora Māori, motuhake, hei arahi, hei tiaki, hei tuku tohutohu, he whakapai ake ai i ngā putanga hauora mō te Māori,” he says.
Dr Wil Harrison, credited as one of New Zealand’s first Māori cardiologists, says healthcare systems may be responsible for continuing inequities.
“A lot of the sort of cultural headwinds I think I’ve faced have actually been after I became a specialist.
“I think that those institutional things do to some extent influence practices as well. So, I think that institutional improvement is very likely to result in practice improvement,” he says.
Harrison says greater Māori participation in research would be another step towards improving outcomes.
“And in cardiology, with heart problems being so common, it’s been relatively easy over the last few decades to generate high-quality scientific data that guides our treatment.
“When it comes to Māori, and this is a global phenomenon in underserved populations, there is definitely a historical lack of representation in people who get enrolled in research projects,” he says.
“I think there’s another really important aspect to Māori and underserved peoples being involved in research, and that’s by being involved and demanding that the research teams pay attention to important Māori values and worldviews, that actually improves the researchers.”
Technology aims to save lives
Attendees completed certification to use Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS), technologies that provide detailed three-dimensional images from inside arteries and can significantly reduce the risk of subsequent heart attacks and death.
Current practice in New Zealand often relies on older imaging methods that produce two-dimensional black-and-white images of arteries, offering limited detail from inside the vessel.
About 30 percent of New Zealand has adopted the technology, but the foundation hopes it will become standard practice nationwide.
