Harkness Project Title: Indigenous Disparities in Health Status: A Cross-Country Comparison of New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States

Mentor: Mark R. Chassin, M.D.

Placement: Mount Sinai-New York University Medical Center and Health System

Biography at time of Harkness Fellowship: Dale Bramley, a 2003-04 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, is general manager for funding and planning at the Waitemata District Health Board (DHB), Auckland, New Zealand. Bramley is also a senior lecturer in public health for the School of Population Health at the University of Auckland. His research interests including cardiovascular health gain at a population level including risk screening and assessment, disparities in health for indigenous peoples and clinical interventions to reduce health inequalities. Bramley is a member of several national advisory committees including the National Ethics Advisory Committee, which has responsibility for providing advice to the Minister of Health on ethical issues of national significance in the health and disability sector.

Project: Bramley investigated disparities in health status among indigenous peoples in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S., the ways in which these are documented and tracked, and the policy approaches to reducing these disparities.  He used available indicators of health outcomes, preventive services, modifiable risk factors, and treatment services in each country, and collaborated with country experts to interpret the results and analyze each country’s policy responses. 

Career Activity Since Fellowship

• CEO, Waitemata District Health Board, 2011
• General Manager Planning and Funding, Waitemata District Health Board, 2007
• Member, New Zealand National Health Committee, 2007-2010
• Member, National Public Health Advisory Committee for the Ministry of Health, 2007-2010
• Honorary Senior Lecturer in Public Health, University of Auckland, 2003

Current Position: CEO, Waitemata District Health Board. (Updated July 2011)

E-Mail: dale.bramley@waitematadhb.govt.nz

Harkness Related Publications

Ashton T, Bramley D, Armstrong D. Improving the productivity of elective surgery through a new ‘package of care.’ Health Policy. 2012 August

Whittaker R, Dorey E, Bramley D, Bullen C, Denny S, Elley CR, Maddison R, McRobbie H, Parag V, Rodgers A, Salmon P. A theory-based video messaging mobile phone intervention for smoking cessation: randomized controlled trial. J Med Internet Res. 2011 Jan 21;13(1):e10.

Cullen J, Bramley D, Armstrong D, Butler L, Rouse P, Ashton T. Increasing productivity, reducing cost and improving quality in elective surgery in New Zealand: the Waitemata District Health Board joint arthroplasty pilot. Intern Med J. 2012 Jun;42(6):620-6.

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.

Bramley D, Latimer S.  The  accuracy of ethnicity data in primary care.  N Z Med J. 2007 Oct 26;120(1264):U2779

Bramley D, Hebert P, Tuzzio L, Chassin M. “Disparities in Indigenous Health: A Cross-Country Comparison between New Zealand and the United States,” American Journal of Public Health, 2005; 95: 844-850.

Bramley D, Hebert P, Jackson R, Chassin M. “Indigenous Disparities in Disease-Specific Mortality, a Cross-Country Comparison: New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United States,” N Z Med J 2004; 117(1207).