{"id":541529,"date":"2026-07-24T06:41:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T06:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/541529\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T06:41:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T06:41:27","slug":"four-heart-and-lung-charities-merge-into-one-pushing-for-life-saving-technology-upon-launch-te-ao-maori-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/541529\/","title":{"rendered":"Four heart and lung charities merge into one, pushing for life-saving technology upon launch \u2013 Te Ao M\u0101ori News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four of New Zealand\u2019s leading heart and lung health charities have merged into one organisation, using their launch to promote life-saving heart imaging technology while training specialists to use it.<\/p>\n

Health professionals and advocates gathered at Auckland\u2019s Pullman Hotel alongside Health Minister Simeon Brown, who officially opened the event before touring a training room where attendees were being certified to use two advanced heart imaging technologies \u2014 Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS).<\/p>\n

\"\"Minister of Health Simeon Brown sits with Scott Harding, Coronary Intravascular Imaging Course Director, to look at the new technology. <\/p>\n

The newly formed Cardiovascular and Respiratory Foundation New Zealand (Tuia Manawa H\u0101) combines the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ, Kia Manawanui Trust \u2013 The Heart of Aotearoa, the Lung Foundation and the Bronchiectasis Foundation.<\/p>\n

The foundation says OCT and IVUS can reduce cardiac deaths by 45 percent by providing detailed images from inside arteries, allowing specialists to make more informed treatment decisions.<\/p>\n

M\u0101ori suffer most from heart and lung disease\"\"Letitia Harding, CEO of the Cardiovascular and Respiratory Foundation NZ <\/p>\n

Chief executive Letitia Harding says M\u0101ori are among those most affected by heart and lung disease, and she hopes the technology will be adopted across New Zealand to improve outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201c85 percent of lung cancer is attributed to smoking and we know that M\u0101ori 3 to 4 times more likely to get lung cancer because of that long history of big tobacco\u2019s tentacles,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that for M\u0101ori they die 10 years younger than European when it comes to heart disease, it\u2019s shocking,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The median age of death for M\u0101ori is 69, compared with 85 for Europeans.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sir John Clarke, long-standing advocate and Kaihaut\u016b says more needs to be done for M\u0101ori. <\/p>\n

Long-standing advocate and kaihaut\u016b Sir John Clarke says more needs to be done specifically for M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n

\u201cT\u0113r\u0101 pea me whakaritea t\u0113tahi r\u014dp\u016b tohunga hauora M\u0101ori, motuhake, hei arahi, hei tiaki, hei tuku tohutohu, he whakapai ake ai i ng\u0101 putanga hauora m\u014d te M\u0101ori,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Dr Wil Harrison, credited as one of New Zealand\u2019s first M\u0101ori cardiologists, says healthcare systems may be responsible for continuing inequities.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr Wil Harrison, a cardiologist, says he only knows two other M\u0101ori in the profession (Photo: The Heart Group). <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the sort of cultural headwinds I think I\u2019ve faced have actually been after I became a specialist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that those institutional things do to some extent influence practices as well. So, I think that institutional improvement is very likely to result in practice improvement,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Harrison says greater M\u0101ori participation in research would be another step towards improving outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in cardiology, with heart problems being so common, it\u2019s been relatively easy over the last few decades to generate high-quality scientific data that guides our treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to M\u0101ori, and this is a global phenomenon in underserved populations, there is definitely a historical lack of representation in people who get enrolled in research projects,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s another really important aspect to M\u0101ori and underserved peoples being involved in research, and that\u2019s by being involved and demanding that the research teams pay attention to important M\u0101ori values and worldviews, that actually improves the researchers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Technology aims to save lives\"\"The foundation is hoping new technology that helps specialists see a 3D view inside arteries will be implemented across the country <\/p>\n

Attendees completed certification to use Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS), technologies that provide detailed three-dimensional images from inside arteries and can significantly reduce the risk of subsequent heart attacks and death.<\/p>\n

Current practice in New Zealand often relies on older imaging methods that produce two-dimensional black-and-white images of arteries, offering limited detail from inside the vessel.<\/p>\n

About 30 percent of New Zealand has adopted the technology, but the foundation hopes it will become standard practice nationwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four of New Zealand\u2019s leading heart and lung health charities have merged into one organisation, using their launch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[81991,266481,266480,23753,266482,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-541529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-hauora","tag-heart-disease-new-zealand","tag-lung-health-new-zealand","tag-maori","tag-maori-participation-in-research","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}