Celebrating women in Science

Lucy Telfar-Barnard Senior Research Fellow, Department of Public Health, University

If you’ve ever wondered how we know that one in seven New Zealanders has a respiratory disease, then researcher Lucy Telfar-Barnard can give you the answer.

Lucy is a senior research fellow at the University of Otago’s Department of Public Health. She has been the lead author on the Foundation’s Impact of Respiratory Disease report since 2014. This report presents an important picture of the state of respiratory diseases like asthma, COPD and bronchiectasis in New Zealand, and how this is changing over time.

Lucy’s background is in epidemiology, the study of the spread of disease across populations. In simple terms, Lucy explains she can predict how likely you are to get a respiratory illness, but not diagnose if you actually have one.

She is motivated in her research by both a desire to make a difference to people’s health and by scientific curiosity. “I like to be presented with a puzzle and find an answer,” she explains. The last impact report, delivered in

2020, provided some potential answers to the longstanding question of how to reduce the rates of respiratory disease. “For many years, the trends in the report hadn’t changed much. But in that last report, the impact of COVID-19 protection measures drove a marked decrease in the rates of respiratory disease. It’s important that we learn from that experience and think about what practical, sustainable things we can continue to do to keep the rates of respiratory disease down,” she says.

Another lesson to take from COVID-19 is the concept of flattening the curve. “We need to apply this thinking to seasonal respiratory illnesses by taking early preventative measures to avoid overwhelming hospitals and GPs in winter,” she explains.

Lucy is currently investigating how New Zealand measures up to World Health Organisation guidelines on healthy homes. She is also preparing for the next update of Impact of Respiratory Disease in New Zealand report which is due out later this year.

Dervla Braem Design & Development Engineer, Dyson

Dervla Braem combines her love of science and engineering with practical creativity in her role as a Design and Development Engineer at technology company Dyson.

Dervla, who studied Mechatronics (electronics and mechanical engineering) at Canterbury University, now designs the next generation of vacuum cleaners, air purifiers and other home appliances for Dyson in the UK.

“I wanted to work on engineering products that people interact with. I love the maths and science side of engineering but wanted to combine it with a more creative and collaborative job,” she explains.

A typical day for Dervla involves designing and drawing new ideas and then heading to the lab where she works with motors, batteries and airflow technologies to bring her ideas to life.

Transferring ideas from drawings to the finished product is an exhaustive process, “The hardest part of the job is that it takes so many tweaks and different iterations of a product before it is right and something you have been working hard on may never become a finished product,” Dervla says. Despite this, being unafraid of failure is important in her role: “We are encouraged to think outside the box and design something unique to see what happens when we test it. Even if it’s not quite right, you end up learn ing something and pushing the project along.”

A women’s perspective is essential to engineering; if we want women to enjoy using our products, we need to have their insights into what is important in a product.”

Dervla is passionate about creating equal opportunities for women in engineering: “We need to create a culture where women are confident to share ideas, and everyone has a voice – even the quietest people.

Finally, Dervla shares some advice for overcoming imposter syndrome in male-dominated workplaces: “Finding a mentor who understands how you feel and has had similar experiences at work can be really beneficial for improving confidence. You need to remember that you are there for a reason and are capable of making a positive impact.”

Dr Amy Chan Senior Research Fellow, School of Pharmacy, University of Auckland

Imagine a future where you wake in the morning and your smart phone beeps with your daily asthma forecast. Senior research fellow Dr Amy Chan is working towards making that a reality.

Amy, who is based at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Auckland, is currently leading a study to develop an asthma attack prediction tool. For the first phase of her study, she will recruit 300 New Zealanders with asthma and then gather a range of data using a suite of technologies including FitBits, Smart Inhalers and Bluetooth peak flow meters. This data will be analysed to understand the most important factors in predicting an asthma attack and then developed into an accessible tool.

Amy’s interest in better predicting and managing asthma is driven by her own experiences. “I was the kid that couldn’t play with my cousins, because I had to be on a nebuliser. I was always on the sidelines on athletics day,” she remembers. “From a young age I wanted to cure the world of asthma.”

Inspired by the hospital pharmacists she saw during trips to pick up specialist medication, Amy trained to be a clinical pharmacist. Her desire to understand more about asthma, then led into research and a PhD involving digital technology and asthma: two interests that have shaped her research career. “People sometimes question the value of technology in managing asthma. But my re sponse is that technology allows us to detect changes in our bodies that may be too small for a human to notice but could be important indicators of an oncoming asthma attack,” Amy explains. “If we can detect these changes more quickly, we have a better chance of

managing asthma.” Technology has also been shown to greatly improve how people use their medications, with smart inhalers that send out reminders particularly effective in encouraging regular use.

Amy remains motivated by her childhood dream to cure asthma, but now she sees this as a joint effort. “It's exciting to use my skills to find another piece in the puzzle, and to hopefully make discoveries others can build on."

Cheryl Davies Senior Research, University of Otago

After more than two decades of involvement with research, Cheryl Davies still sees herself as an ‘emerging’ researcher. “I’m still on a learning journey and as a researcher that journey never really ends,” she says. Cheryl is the manager of Tu Kotahi Māori Asthma Trust and a senior Māori researcher with the University of Otago. Her journey in respiratory research began many years ago. “I was asthmatic myself and two of my children had asthma. I was part of a community education group that really wanted to better understand and manage our asthma,” she explains.

Her group was involved in research for the Māori Asthma Review carried out in the early 1990s. A key finding from the review was that more Māori asthma services were needed providing services by Māori for Māori. “Our journey at Tu Kotahi began thanks to that review,” she says.

“I saw that we needed to have evidence of what was happening in our communities for change to happen and that piqued my interest in research.”

Since then, Cheryl has been involved in research projects covering a range of respiratory conditions: asthma, bronchiolitis and

COPD, as well as wider issues affecting respiratory health like the impact of housing on health. The greatest rewards of her research career have been seeing the practical outcomes of her work. The findings of the Pukapuka Hauora Asthma guided how Māori health workers worked with whānau and tamariki with asthma. Early research on the benefits of insulation and heating contributed to the establishment of the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme, and subsidised programmes for heat pumps in homes.

Another career high has been seeing external researchers embrace mātauranga Māori and the growth of organisations, like Tu Kotahi, in undertaking their own research. “We realised quite early on that we needed a whānau ora approach that takes a broad view of whānau needs. We are not just working with individuals, but with the whole whānau.”

Cheryl hopes to establish a kaupapa Māori research unit at the trust’s base at Kokiri Marae in Lower Hutt and continue to build the Māori health and research workforce.