Growing Māori and Pasifika representation in the digital health sector

FEATURE - Industry Innovation Article -Spark Health

Our current IT workforce is comprised of only 4 percent Māori and 2.8 percent Pasifika. This lack of diversity is not a new challenge but represents a massive opportunity to meet the demands for digital skills in the health sector.

“Aotearoa’s legacy of health inequity is well documented. Statistically, Māori and Pasifika peoples, along with the disabled and members of our rainbow community, are amongst those significantly disadvantaged within the current system. That’s why, as technology becomes central to the way we approach health services, it’s time to engage in meaningful korero that goes beyond technical capability,” says Dr Will Reedy, Spark Health CEO.

Promoting health equity through a patient-centric model
Traditionally, our health system has operated in a provider-centred way but, to promote better outcomes for all New Zealanders, Reedy points to growing evidence that moving to a patient-focused model is vital.

“When you look at health systems around the world that have been undergoing this process it’s clear that, to successfully migrate to a digital ecosystem, we need to be completely patient-centric. That means thinking about meeting the unique needs of various communities, rather than providing broad solutions that assume the population’s needs are homogeneous,” says Reedy.

Translating that into a local setting, Reedy gives the example of poor representation of te whare tapa whā within the current health system.

“New Zealand health practitioners are highly capable of helping their patients with taha tinana (physical health) and taha hinengaro (mental health). For Māori patients though, the two other cornerstones which make up te whare tapa whā – taha whānau (family health) and taha wairua (spiritual health) – fall outside of their remit.

With Māori being overrepresented in many areas, including diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease, one way of promoting equity is to focus on incorporating taha whānau and taha wairua into the digital health solutions we make available,” says Reedy.

“Minority representation in the health sector is something that Spark Health is passionate about.”

They took the opportunity to share this passion in their recent sponsored webinar to start a discussion on how to increase diversity in the sector and how to enable Māori and Pasifika to build successful careers in digital health.

Panelist Nathan Bryant-Taukiri, Chief Executive of Rea, an organisation that provides coaching for Māori and Pasifika in technology, business practices and personal performance, sees huge benefits of bringing in talent with different approaches and ways of thinking about designing and delivering digital solutions.

“The key is to lean into the holistic way of viewing life and people and wellbeing, think about the person in totality.” “Te Ao Maori is a different model of seeing the world, it is a values based framework that has been around for over a thousand years,” says Bryant-Taukiri.

Stephen Su'a, a Rea learner shared his experience with project Waiora – a challenge for learners to work in small teams and address one of the contributing factors to the 5590+ problem. “What I particularly loved about Rea and project Waiora, is that we got to use our learnings in a real-life project.”

Stephen received a scholarship to Otago University where he then realised it was not the right fit for him. He decided to leave his most recent career as a builder and enrolled himself in Rea’s Accelerated Pathway Program where he discovered a new sense of purpose, and confidence which has led him down a path that has launched his technology journey as an aspiring technologist.

It was a career path that didn’t spark an interest at school. “Most of my school ICT programs weren’t really interesting and weren’t really catered to us,” said Su’a.

Bryant-Taukiri says this sums up the challenge for the sector. “People need to see themselves, their future selves inside of that environment. Until it is validated ‘that’s for someone like me’ it can seem like it’s just unrealistic or unfeasible.”

That is the challenge for all of us to increase diversity in the sector is that collective effort to show that first step isn’t much and when you get beyond it there’s a lot on offer.

Reedy is also supporting Spark subsidiary Qrious that share the passion in increasing diversity in the tech sector and have created an initiative to fund around 10 entry-level roles for Māori and Pacifica in data this year through a 12-week accelerator programme and ongoing mentoring.

“The current levels of participation are unacceptable in our industry and something we want to lead out solving, says Stephen Ponsford, CEO of Qrious.

We are all on the journey together
In addition to building diversity into the organisations tasked with delivering the various components of tomorrow’s digital health ecosystem, Reedy says there are broader issues that need to be addressed as well.

“The creation of a digital health ecosystem that secures better outcomes for New Zealanders is something that no single organisation or government department can deliver. For example, if you look at statistics around access to the internet, many of our minority communities are significantly disadvantaged – only 71% of people with disabilities report having access to the internet, while Māori households are 16% less likely to have internet access in comparison to non-Māori households.

Considering that these communities face significant challenges around health provision already, it is critical that the health tech sector and other stakeholders lean into solving challenges like data security, connectivity and device access. Ultimately, a true ecosystem is diverse and interdependent. By working together, we can create real opportunity for our health sector.”

“It’s not just the tech, it’s engaging the people, changing the process, talking about the benefits and thinking about the policy. From my experience overseas, when it is done for the people by the people, makes a big difference in terms of the adoption of digital technology.”

Discover More
Rea
Spark Health
Qrious

Webinar - Growing Māori and Pasifika representation in the digital health sector
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