Associate Professor Ed Gane

Ed Gane is Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and Deputy Director of the New Zealand Liver Transplant Unit at Auckland City Hospital. 

Ed trained in hepatology at the Institute of Liver Studies, King’s College School of Medicine, London, where he completed a thesis on the pathogenesis of hepatitis C-related liver injury. On his return to New Zealand in 1996, Ed was appointed Chief Transplant Physician for the first New Zealand Liver Transplant programme. In addition, he runs the National Hepatoma Clinic as well as hepatitis clinics at both Auckland and Greenlane Hospitals.

Ed has been the Government Clinical Advisor to the National Hepatitis B Screening Programme since its inception in 1998. Since 2007, Ed has chaired the Ministry of Health Hepatitis C Treatment Advisory Board and this year was appointed MoH Champion for HCV.

Ed is Principal Investigator for many international clinical trials of therapies for chronic HBV, HCV, and hepatocellular carcinoma and runs a phase I research centre focusing on new molecular agents targeted against viral hepatitis. 

Ed has written 10 chapters and published over 120 papers in peer-reviewed journals including The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine

 

Hepatitis B and C 101 - Practice Nurses Programme
 
Saturday, 7 August 2010 Start 11:50am Duration: 25mins Holiday Inn Ballroom 2
The Ministry of Health Hepatitis C Implementation Plan
Ed Gane, HCV Champion, MoH HCV Project Team

In September 2005 a commitment was made by the government, to resolve the longstanding concerns of those infected with hepatitis C through the blood supply. Within this commitment a variety of measures were promised, including provision of an enhanced treatment package. Additional funding was sought and secured for this treatment package and a Hepatitis C Treatment Advisory group, comprising of clinicians, DHB managers and community representatives and chaired by Ed Gane was established to advise the Ministry of Health. 

The terms of reference of the Hepatitis C Treatment Advisory Group were to develop a costed and prioritised Implementation Plan, supported by district health boards (DHBs) and the Ministry of Health. This group first met on 17 April 2007. During 2008, they conducted a comprehensive Stocktake of current HCV treatment services provided at each of the 21 DHBs. Following analysis of these results and other information, the committee identified barriers to accessing this treatment and geographical gaps in service provision. They identified priority interventions to improve services and patient outcomes throughout NZ and developed a costed and prioritised implementation plan for improving the access to and uptake of Hepatitis C treatment in New Zealand. The subsequent Health Report and the Hepatitis C Plan was submitted to Hon. Tony Ryall by HCTAG in January 2009. 

On 28 July 2009, the Minister approved the “Strategic Directions for Hepatitis C – improving access to and uptake of hepatitis C treatment services” and signed off the funding allocation to address the key action areas within the document. These four key action areas, identified within Strategic Directions for Hepatitis C, are: (i) improving HCV treatment services;(ii) improving knowledge of HCV among primary health care providers; (iii) increasing the percentage of all people with HCV who have had the disease diagnosed; (iv) improving the knowledge of HCV prevalence in the New Zealand population and within subgroups.

During this presentation, I will briefly outline the plans for primary care, including the new e-learning tool for GPs and Practice Nurses, designed to improve knowledge and encourage opportunistic screening for HCV.
 
A new screening tool for Hepatitis C
 
Sunday, 8 August 2010 Start 11:25am Duration: 25mins Chancellor 1