Wednesday, 28 April 2010

Dr Julia Peters appointed Chief Advisor Screening

The National Screening Unit (NSU) is pleased to announce Dr Julia Peters has been appointed to the role of Chief Advisor Screening. Julia will lead the establishment of the Clinical Governance Group for the NSU to advise and support the programmes the NSU are responsible for.

Julia is a Public Health Physician and the Clinical Director for the Auckland Regional Public Health Service. Prior to becoming a Public Health Physician she was a General Practitioner and also spent a number of years working in Papua New Guinea.

Her background in screening dates back to 1998 with the establishment of the National Breast Screening Programme and the Ministerial Inquiry into systemic failures within the National Cervical Screening Programme. She took a lead role in the initial design and establishment of the National Screening Unit and implementation of many of the recommendations from the Cervical Screening Inquiry, in particular supporting the initial drafting of revised cervical screening legislation. 

Following her departure from the National Screening Unit she was the public health advisor to the Cervical Cancer Audit that reported its findings in 2004. Julia will provide strategic public health advice to the NSU on all its programmes, not just cancer screening programmes. She acknowledges that screening programmes are very complex and require constant vigilance to ensure that high quality is maintained and systemic issues are promptly identified and addressed. She has a particular interest in ensuring that good decisions are made with respect to screening and that every effort is made to maximise the population benefits from our investment in screening.

Julia will be available to the NSU on a part-time basis whilst maintaining her substantive role with the Auckland Regional Public Health Service.