14 March 2019
NIHI is celebrating 30 years of undertaking and managing clinical trials and service delivery.
NIHI is currently based at the UoA’s Tamaki Campus and is a unique mix of collocated UoA employed academics and UniServices employed operational/service staff. NIHI’s focus is on the discovery, development, testing and delivery of innovative health approaches to prevent disease, improve people's health, and enable the delivery of more effective and equitable healthcare in New Zealand and overseas.
It was established in 1989 as The Clinical Trials Research Unit by Professors Stephen MacMahon and Norman Sharp to undertake large-scale international studies and was originally part of the Department of Medicine.
NIHI general manager Karen Carter says over the past 30 years NIHI has moved from pharmaceutical-funded trials to public good-funded research, and government and industry-funded service contracts. Karen says the unit’s early work focused on cardiovascular research, but the portfolio has grown to encompass nutrition, addictions, physical activity, mobile health, child and young adult health and other priority areas impacting on the health of the population.
One of the biggest changes in the past decade has been a move to technology supported and delivered research. It can be undertaken faster, reach more people and can speed up the time from research to market compared to traditional labour and time-intensive research.
Watch this space for more information on NIHI’s celebrations.
