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Member Profiles List

Explore researchers, clinicians, and professionals shaping the future of AI in Health. Browse member profiles, discover areas of expertise, and connect with individuals across the network.

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I'm a Wellington-based GP and co-founder and CEO of Gestalt, an AI-native medical education company building clinical reasoning practice for medical students. I trained at Otago, hold fellowships with the RNZCGP and RACGP and an MBA from Cambridge, and previously worked for G42 Healthcare in Abu Dhabi. I still see patients part-time. My AI in health interest is applied: building AI that teaches and assesses reasoning safely, how this is validated, and how it is governed.

Alastair Dunne

Co-Founder & CEO

Gestalt

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I am a general surgeon with 15 years of clinical experience in the United States and New Zealand currently practicing on the West Coast of the South Island. Over the past two years I have learned to build and ship AI tools that solve problems I encounter directly in clinical practice. My work centers on designing clinical AI systems end-to-end, from architecture and model selection through deployment, testing, and regulatory validation, with a particular focus on auditability and real-world usability rather than benchmark performance alone. My goal is to keep building clinically grounded, technically rigorous AI, informed equally by frontline surgical practice and hands-on engineering.

David Lee

General Surgeon

Te Whatu Ora/Health New Zealand West Coast

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I am a Systems Biologist specializing in the intersection of artificial intelligence and metagenomics. My research explores how microbial communities shape human health and disease, with a focus on developing AI-powered, non-invasive diagnostic tools and preventative measures. I view AI as a necessity for understanding the inherent complexity of biological systems and advancing precision medicine. My broader vision is to create clinically relevant, data-driven tools that improve the human condition. I am committed to ensuring the technologies I develop are equitable, robust, and translational. By moving from computational insight to clinical impact, my work aims to provide the foundations for next-generation diagnostics and proactive health management.

Theo Portlock

Research Fellow

Liggins Institute, University of Auckland

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I am a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Otago. My research focuses on how artificial intelligence can support clinicians in real-world workflows, particularly through interactive clinical reasoning, differential diagnosis, and evidence-based decision support. I am interested in large language models, medical knowledge graphs, AI agents, and harness engineering. My broader goal is to develop AI tools that are safe, clinically useful, explainable, and culturally appropriate.

Yihang Cheng

PhD student

University of Otago

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Tania Moerenhout is a Senior Lecturer at the Bioethics Department of the University of Otago and a general practitioner in Ōtepoti Dunedin. She graduated as a general practitioner in Belgium in 2009 and completed a PhD in philosophy at Ghent University in 2019 before moving to Aotearoa in 2020. Her main research interest lies in digital health ethics, with a focus on integrating ethical considerations into technology design, digital assistive technologies for older adults, the ethical use of artificial intelligence in primary care, and the secondary use of routinely collected healthcare data. Tania is a member of the National Ethics Advisory Committee and of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians’ ethics committee. She is also a principal investigator for AIMCura, an MBIE-AI Singapore-funded project aiming to develop an AI-driven platform for cognitive health in older adults.

Tania Moerenhout

Senior Lecturer - GP

University of Otago - Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka

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Dr Amanda Oakley is a New Zealand-based dermatologist. She is an Honorary Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Auckland and at the New Zealand Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Waikato, and has recently retired from Health New Zealand Waikato. She's been a consultant for MoleMap since 2003. She began her research in teledermatology in 1995, the same year she began creating DermNet, the online Dermatology resource. Digital dermatology led to an interest in artificial intelligence. She is the immediate past president of the International Society for Digital Health in Dermatology. Her current clinical/academic activities involve AI-assisted teledermatology in the private sector, a partnership of AIPDerm with CareHQ, and using generative AI to create an online course for Skin Cancer NZ, funded by HNZ. You'll find more about Professor Oakley's academic achievements and publications at https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9461-2790.

Amanda Oakley

Honorary Professor

University of Auckland

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Parag Bhatnagar is Product Owner for Intelligent Automation at Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand, where he leads the design and delivery of automation across clinical and corporate services. His interests span intelligent, agentic and deterministic automation, AI governance, responsible AI, and the application of automation to improve health system performance, productivity and crisis readiness. He was an ESRC Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge researching agentic automation in public health. Parag holds degrees in electrical engineering, computer science and a MBA, and actively collaborates with clinicians, researchers and industry to translate AI research into practical healthcare solutions.

Parag Bhatnagar

Product Owner - AI & Automation

Health New Zealand

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I'm an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of Auckland. I have interests in psychological wellbeing, mental health, and ethnic-cultural identity for Pacific peoples. I also serve as Associate Dean Pacific for the Te Whare Pūtaiao | Faculty of Science. I have additional interests in Pacific Data Sovereignty within Aoteaora and am a member of the Pacific Data Sovereignty Network.

Sam Manuela

Associate Professor - Psychology

The University of Auckland

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Aidan Leong is the Group Manager - Radiation Therapy Education and Training for Icon Group, leading education and capability development for radiation therapy staff across more than 40 cancer centres internationally. Alongside clinical leadership and practice as a radiation therapist, he has worked in pre‑clinical research, trial coordination, and medical education. Aidan also holds a part‑time Senior Lecturer position at the University of Otago, contributing to undergraduate and postgraduate radiation therapy programmes. He has a strong interest in the responsible application of artificial intelligence in radiation therapy, including work on large‑scale implementation of deep learning auto‑segmentation and emerging uses of AI to support patient education, clinical learning, and workflow assistance.

Aidan Leong

Senior Lecturer / Group Manager Radiation Therapy Education & Training

University of Otago / Icon Group

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