Buzz Burrell was born in a small market town in Lancashire, North
West England. His passion for life and people took him to London to study
Medicine, spending an elective in rural Bangladesh where he worked in remote
solo practice, and met his New Zealander wife, Lauren.
He
qualified in 1986, and subsequently trained in internal medicine, attaining
Membership of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1991. He won the
inaugural Glaxo-Welcome respiratory research fellowship in Dunedin, New
Zealand, and was elected Lecturer of the Year in 1993.
The
excitement and challenge of remote rural family medicine saw Buzz change codes,
and on completing his research he resurrected a small practice on the West
Coast of the South Island, establishing remote clinics and emergency services
for the second largest remote area of New Zealand. Within four years Buzz and
his partner were elected Runners up New Zealanders of the Year. He was awarded
fellowship of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners in 2002.
Buzz has also experienced remote rural practice in Western
Australia, and the Chatham Islands. Buzz is a Royal New Zealand College of GP
registrar trainer, and senior lecturer with the University of Otago. He has
always been involved in innovation, establishing a new centre for the final
year Rural Medical Immersion Programme; and working with Curtin University
Western Australia on a novel flow meter for asthmatics.
He is a columnist for GP Pulse magazine, has appeared on radio and
television, he has written his first yet-to-be-published book, and has written
and produced amateur dramatic productions. Buzz and Lauren have three
daughters, and any spare time is absorbed by a bach in the Marlborough
Sounds, and a small hobby farm where Buzz has lost count of how many animals
his kids have.