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D r. Jennifer Moore, from Otago’s Law Faculty and the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, has been awarded the prestigious Harkness Fellowship for 2015. After being interviewed on the afternoon of 3 December, Moore was told she had won the fellowship a mere three hours later. Starting from August 2015, Moore will spend a year in the United States researching solutions to avoid medical malpractice.

Working alongside Professor Michelle Mello from Stanford and Harvard, Moore says her research will “aim to inform the design of communication-and-resolution programmes (CRPs) in the US.” These CRPs “seek to identify and disclose medical injuries, improve quality of care, and offer apology and compensation.” The core of the research will focus on “the impact of compensation on the doctor–patient relationship.” Data will be collected from both New Zealand and the United States.

According to Moore, “There is speculation and anecdotal evidence that recent ACC medical injury case law in New Zealand is discouraging doctors from assisting their patients to make claims with ACC.” Moore’s research will be the first empirical health-law study in New Zealand to investigate such an issue.

Moore says she is “absolutely thrilled” to be awarded the fellowship, which she has been planning on applying for since 2009. “I have been waiting for the right time in US health-care law and policy to undertake my research,” she said. “With Obamacare, and, specifically, the funding of communication-and-resolution programmes, now is the right time.”

The Obama Administration has recently shown an interest in CRPs, and Moore says the study’s results “will contribute to health policy and law reform” both in New Zealand and in the United States. “The study’s empirical evidence will be invaluable for policymakers’ decision making, particularly about the design of new CRPs. Conducting this project at a time of reform means that there is a greater likelihood of research–practice translation and breakthrough opportunities to improve injured patients’ experiences.”

Moore says Otago students will greatly benefit from the research. “When I return to Otago,” she said, “I will teach using examples and research from the US. I will be able to make jurisdictional comparisons (legal and health systems) between NZ and the USA.”

Moore believes she could not have achieved the fellowship without the help of her colleagues: Prof. Henaghan (Dean of Law), Prof. Nicola Peart, Prof. Peter Crampton, Dr. Marie Bismark, Prof. Kate Diesfeld, Prof. Colin Gavaghan and Prof. Robin Gauld.