Harkness Project Title: Health Status, Sources of Care, Barriers to Care and Health Service Utilization for American Indian and Alaska Native Peoples

Mentors: Barbara Starfield, M.D., and George R. Brenneman, M.D.

Placement: Bloomberg School of Public Health

Biography at time of Harkness Fellowship: Suzanne M. Crengle, M.B.Ch.B., a 1999–2000 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy, is a practicing physician and a senior lecturer in Maori Health at the University of Auckland.  She is also director of the Tomaiora Maori Health Research Group, whose research focuses Maori children, young people and their families. Crengle’s research interests include the primary care management of childhood asthma, nutritional status infants aged six to 23 months and adolescent health. She served as a member of the executive of Te ORA (the National Maori Medical Practitioners Association) and the council of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners. Crengle is a specialist qualified in General Practice (Family Medicine).

Project: Crengle investigated differences in health and health care among American Indian and Alaska Native People and other ethnic groups.  She analyzed data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey on: demographic characteristics of the population; self-perceived physical and mental health status; usual source of care; barriers to accessing care; and health care utilization.  She also analyzed data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project on hospital discharges, diagnoses, procedures, and lengths of stay.

Career Activity Since Fellowship

•  Maori Health Advisor, New Zealand’s National Health Committee, 2002

• Interim Chair, Department of Maori and Pacific Health, School of Medicine, University of Auckland, 2001

Current Position: Senior Lecturer, Department of Maori and Pacific Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Auckland. (Updated January 2012)

E-Mail: s.crengle@auckland.ac.nz

Harkness-Related Publications

Hosking J, Ameratunga S, Bramley D, Crengle S. Reducing ethnic disparities in the quality of trauma care: an important research gap. Annuals of Surgery. 2011 Feb;253(2):233-7. Review.

Crengle SM. "The Development of Maori Primary Care Services," Pacific Health Dialogue, March 2001;7(1):48–53.