Letitia's Message

I hope everyone is managing to stay warm and dry as we head into the cooler months of winter, especially as we know that cold, damp air can trigger numerous respiratory health issues.

The Foundation whānau have been extremely busy with key projects, including the update of our online Asthma & COPD eLearning course. We are now running the course in-house so we can engage with people who enrol much more effectively, addressing any questions you may have. We also hope to be able to enhance and build on our educational offering.

Joanna Turner, our Research & Education Manager (and resident pharmacist), is overseeing this programme, along with our ever present and engaged Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). For those health professionals required to undertake CPD points/hours-based learning, this eLearning is accredited for 12 CPD hours. We would encourage every health professional to include the latest asthma and COPD best practice in their reflective practice accounts and professional development plan. At the end of this course, you will receive a Certificate of Completion and an official ‘ARFNZ Asthma & COPD Trained’ badge.

You can find more information on page 13. This April, we also saw the public consultation ‘Proposal for a Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan’ released, with some bold ideas on how we can truly get to a Smokefree Aotearoa. Hopefully you all submitted on this proposal. Remember, it is only through active engagement of the community that we can see positive health policy changes.

We have also seen the changing of the guard with the appointment of a new Medical Director – Dr James Fingleton. James is a respiratory physician and Clinical Leader for Respiratory at Wellington Regional Hospital. He is also a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Otago and Honorary Research Associate at Victoria University of Wellington.

James has been a member of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation’s SAB since 2020, and as Medical Director he will take on the Board Chair role.

James took over from Dr Stuart Jones, who served as the MD for the Foundation for the past 4 years. During this time, Stuart’s achievements included leading the development of the new COPD guidelines alongside Professor Bob Hancox, and contributing his expertise to the Foundation’s campaigning and advocacy around vaping regulations.

It was my pleasure to present Stuart with the Foundation’s inaugural MD award for significant contribution to the Foundation’s work, and we look forward to Stuart’s valuable input as a continuing member of our SAB.

Dr Stuart Jones, who served as the Foundation's Medical Director from 2017 - 2021.

World Asthma Day (WAD) was an incredibly special occasion for the Foundation this year, with Aotearoa Te Rā Whakaarohia te Huangō - New Zealand’s inaugural Asthma Awareness Day being launched. This day will be held on the first Tuesday in May of each year to coincide with World Asthma Day, an international event organised by GINA (the Global Initiative for Asthma). The name was gifted to the Foundation by the wonderful Sir John Clarke, KNZM, CNZM, the Foundation’s Chief Cultural Advisor, Māori.

New Zealand’s asthma statistics are among the worst in the world, with Māori tamariki, mokopuna and whānau disproportionately affected. The 2019 Global Burden of Disease reported the rate of death due to childhood asthma in New Zealand as nearly four times higher than the global rate for children aged 10-14 years. The recent University of Auckland study published in the NZMJ and highlighted on page 5 showed that Māori children are hospitalised for asthma at twice the rate of non-Māori.

Finally, as always, we hope that you continue to support and value what the Foundation does. Please provide us with feedback, the positive and the negative, as we welcome engagement from you - our readers. Remember, the Foundation receives no contract government funding towards producing all the information and national resources that we continue to provide free of charge, and we can only do this through the generous support of our sponsors, donor whānau, and community grants that we are always so thankful to receive.

Noho ora mai

Letitia Harding

Chief Executive