Auckland GP to explore how consumer tech can drive healthy behaviours

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth 

Auckland GP Reza Jarral has been awarded the 2025–2026 Harkness Fellowship to investigate how digital health tools and behavioural science can be harnessed to improve health outcomes.

Jarral, who is chief medical officer at telehealth service CareHQ and clinical director for health equity at ProCare, will travel to the United States in August, where he will be based at Stanford University.

He is particularly interested in how consumer technologies, such as wearables, health apps, and digital coaches, can drive behaviour change, and hopes to translate this research into both clinical practice and national policy back in New Zealand.

“If we can provide health consumers with timely, relevant, useful nudges, which are embedded in sticky platforms that keep them engaged, we might be able to improve healthcare compliance, encourage people to exercise more, to sleep better, to engage with their mental health and empower them to self-care,” he explains.

As part of his research he will be doing  deep dives on specific technologies, and exploring the policies needed to implement and support effective digital health implementations in New Zealand in the prevention space.

“The challenge for me during the Harkness year, particularly as a frontline clinician, is to take a step back and look at the federal level to try and understand how we are regulating and encouraging the adoption of technologies like generative AI, agentic AI, consumer devices, apps and services,” he says.

He says Verily’s diabetes management platform, Noom, and other successful international models are worth studying. 

“There are some pockets of excellence, emerging evidence, but also a great deal of scepticism, so what we need to understand is where are we failing and what could we apply in our New Zealand context?

“Digital health solutions are very much there to support rather than replace in-person care, but they also offer amazing potential to reach populations at scale,” Jarral tells eHealthNews.

He also emphasised the importance of equity. 

“We have a moral imperative - to ensure that as the world continues to experience profound digital transformation, that we do not leave people behind.”

Listen to the eHealth Talk podcast interview with Reza Jarral to learn more.

Image: Reza Jarral, chief medical officer, CareHQ, and clinical director for health equity at ProCare

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