Meet our team

Was born in Nelson and attended Nelson College before leaving to complete his Medical degree at Otago University. He did his Ophthalmology training in the UK passing his FRCS final exam in Edinburgh in 1987. He has previously been involved in providing eye surgery in Nepal and the Pacific Islands but over the last 10 years in addition to his busy clinical practice he has been preoccupied with improving Eye Health Services in New Zealand firstly in his role Chairing the Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Group and then Chairing the Save Sight Society and more recently Chairing the NZ Branch of the Royal Australian and NZ College of Ophthalmologists.

From 2014 – 2018 Derek was Chair of the Council of Medical Colleges an organisation that represents 15 Specialist Colleges and 9,500 doctors.

Deborah completed public health medicine training following several years of clinical practice. She works as a consultant in the public sector and also is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University, Wellington.

Her experience includes positions in the Ministry of Health and other central government agencies and as a Medical Officer of Health in several district health boards. She was a director of public health medicine training for six years. From 2000 to 2008, she was a member of the Medical Council of New Zealand, including six years as Deputy Chair, and six years as Chair of the Education Committee. She was also a member of the former Environmental Risk Management Authority from 2007 to 2011. Deborah is currently a member of the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal and Advertising Standards Complaints Board.

Emergency Medicine Physician, MBChB (Auckland) FACEM

John Bonning has been a Specialist Emergency Physician for over 14 years and has been Director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Waikato Hospital since 2010. He is Chair of the NZ Faculty and President Elect of ACEM.

Having worked in different emergency departments throughout New Zealand and Australia as well as the UK, he has a first-hand knowledge of different models of care in a variety of settings from the smallest rural to the largest tertiary hospital. John has various other roles as an APLS and ACME Instructor and a Police Medical Officer and an expert advisor to the Police, Coroner and Courts on a variety of forensic and medical matters.

In 2018 John was elected chair of the Council of Medical Colleges of New Zealand, an organisation that represents 15 specialist Colleges.

Belinda holds a medical degree from the University of Newcastle in Australia, and a Master of Public Health from the University of Auckland. She has a background in clinical medicine in rural Australia and New Zealand, with a focus on indigenous health and reducing health inequalities.

In New Zealand, she has worked in public health policy at the Ministry of Health, including service integration, maternal and child health, and primary health care reform. At Waitemata DHB, she supported the development of a Maori Health Needs Assessment and inequalities framework.  In 2010, she helped establish an Asia-Pacific network for action on health equity and the social determinants of health.   She has a strong interest in reducing health inequities, and has worked on rheumatic fever control in the Bay of Plenty/Lakes DHBs and reducing immunisation inequities in New Zealand.

From 2012, Belinda has worked on strengthening national health policies, noncommunicable disease prevention and control, and equity and social determinants of health for the World Health Organization in Cambodia, Sri Lanka, at WHO Headquarters, and for the 53 countries of the WHO European Region.

Leanne has worked in the health sector for several years, most recently at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. She currently works for the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and the Council of Medical Colleges.

Rachel is the newest member of the Choosing Wisely team. She currently works for the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and the Council of Medical Colleges.