Rate My Professor Peter McIntyre

Professor Peter McIntyre is a Professor and Head of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Otago, Dunedin School of Medicine, having joined the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health in 2018. From 2004 to 2017, he was Director of Australia’s National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), Professor in the Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health at the University of Sydney, and an infectious disease specialist at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney. His academic background includes an MB BS (Hons) from the University of Queensland, a PhD from the University of Sydney in 1995 focused on the epidemiology and prevention of invasive Hib disease, DMedSc, FRACP, and FAFPHM qualifications.

Qualified in paediatric infectious diseases and public health medicine, Professor McIntyre specializes in the epidemiology of vaccine-preventable diseases, utilization of big data from disease and immunisation coverage registers, and vaccine trials, holding an international reputation in pneumococcal and pertussis vaccines. Current research encompasses Health Research Council-funded clinical trials evaluating measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine delivery by nebulised aerosol versus intramuscular administration in collaboration with Student Health Services, and initiatives to strengthen maternal immunisation particularly among Māori populations with Dr Amber Young and Associate Professor Esther Willing. He supervises honours, masters, PhD students, and advanced trainees in paediatrics and public health medicine; a summer student under his supervision won the Gil Barbezat prize for Summer Studentship in 2022. Professor McIntyre serves as Medical Advisor to the Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC) in Auckland. In 2020, he received the Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to medicine in paediatric infectious diseases and public health medicine through research into vaccine-preventable diseases. Key publications include “Corticosteroids for acute bacterial meningitis” (2015), “Effect of vaccines on bacterial meningitis worldwide” (2012), “Pertussis: review of epidemiology, diagnosis, management and prevention” (2008), “Optimal age targeting for pneumococcal vaccination in older adults: a modelling study” (2023), and “Limitations of serological screening for measles immunity in young health care workers in New Zealand” (2025).