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Professor Richard S. Stubbs
MD FRCS FRACS
Managing Director P3 Research Ltd
Hepatobiliary and Upper GI Surgeon, Wakefield Hospital, Wellington, NZ
President, NZACRes
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Richard is an Otago graduate who completed surgical training in the UK, and a period of fulltime research in the US, before joining The University Department of Surgery in Wellington in 1986.
In 1991 he established the Wakefield Gastroenterology Centre in Wellington, which became a referral centre for both the medical and surgical management of Gastrointestinal diseases. There he developed a busy career encompassing clinical practice as an upper GI and hepatobiliary surgeon, clinical research, and basic science research. His own particular interests revolved around the treatment of liver tumours, bariatric surgery and diabetes.
In 2008 he was appointed to an Adjunct Professor position within the University of Otago in recognition of his professional standing and the importance of his research program. He has since reduced his clinical workload in order to devote more time to the clinical trials industry in NZ, through the position he took up in 2010, as Managing Director of P3 Research Ltd.
The State and Future of Clinical Research in New Zealand
Clinical research in NZ has faced many challenges over the last 30 years. Contributors to this have included: substantial removal of government funding for training and education from health budgets; increasing financial pressures on public funding for both health and education; replacement of doctors in top tier management in hospitals with non medical managers; the formation of Pharmac as the sole purchaser of the country’s medications; the development of tighter controls and expectations of the standards to which clinical research is conducted. Each of these was, of course, introduced for a reason, and to provide answers to a problem. But each brought a new problem. As a result clinical research outputs in NZ have fallen behind in the last 30 years, and have certainly not grown as would have been ideal.
But clinical research provides professional stimulation to those who undertake it, benefit to the country, benefit to the healthcare system and ultimately benefit to the public. For these reasons and through the determination of those involved, clinical research has survived, and unquestionably in high quality format. However, problems and challenges remain to be overcome and met, if we are to see the full benefits of clinical research realised. The Government was alerted to some of the issues by the Health Committee Report in 2011 and useful responses were made and some challenges accepted and met. However, there remains much to be done to stimulate and support clinical research within both the Public and Private sectors in NZ, and NZACRes has a role to play in this. As we succeed, NZ will be the better for it.
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