Rate My Professor Mark Smith

Dr. Mark Smith serves as a Senior Professional Practice Fellow in the Centre for Rural Health at the University of Otago, Faculty of Medicine. He is a Paper Co-convener for GENA 728 Cardiorespiratory Medicine in Rural Settings within the Rural Postgraduate Programme. Smith holds the qualifications MBChB (University of Otago, 2003), DipPaeds, FRNZCGP (2015), and FDRHMNZ (2015). He practices as a Rural General Practitioner in Alexandra, Central Otago, and as a Rural Hospital Generalist at Dunstan Hospital, Clyde, Central Otago, with an advanced skill set in anaesthetics and sedation. Prior to completing the New Zealand General Practice training programme, Smith worked in paediatrics, where he earned his Diploma in Paediatrics. He subsequently completed the Rural Hospital Medicine training programme, securing a part-time appointment at Dunstan Hospital to complement his general practice. Smith has professional experience in disadvantaged communities overseas, having worked in rural Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands, and intends to undertake future short-term stints in similar settings. His areas of interest encompass rural medicine, child health, rural hospital medicine, and procedural sedation and ventilation in rural hospitals.

At the University of Otago, Smith contributes to teaching rural cardiorespiratory and respiratory medicine as part of the Rural Postgraduate Programme faculty. His academic output includes co-authorship of 'New Zealand postgraduate medical training by distance for Pacific Island country-based general practitioners: a qualitative study' published in the Journal of Primary Health Care (2022, with Blattner et al.) and 'Doing without the residential component of a blended postgraduate rural medical programme during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand: Student perspectives' in Education for Primary Care (2022, with Blattner, Miller, and Lander). He delivered a verbal presentation titled 'Doing without the in-person component of a blended postgraduate rural medical programme during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic: Rural trainee perspectives' at the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners Conference in Wellington (2021, with Blattner). Additionally, he co-presented 'Rural Clinical Training Forum: Connecting the Pipeline' at the New Zealand Rural General Practice Network and Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand National Rural Health Conference in Rotorua (2015, with Walters et al.). Smith's work advances rural healthcare training and education in New Zealand and the Pacific region.