About me

I was born and raised in Christchurch, New Zealand.  My father is Samoan, and my mother is of Scottish ancestry.  I completed my BSc and PGDipSci in Anatomy and Neuroscience at the University of Otago before attending medical school at the University of Auckland.  

There I found my love for connecting with others and trying to understand the issues that patients and my classmates have with navigating the health system.    In my early years as a house officer, I enjoyed listening to people's stories.  This helped me gravitate towards Psychiatry.  I was accepted into psychiatry training, passed the exams and went on to specialist training in Psychogeriatrics.  

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The long hours, lack of social life, and being put in ever-increasing risky situations due to poor staffing all built up, and I soon fell out of love with medicine. When Covid arrived, my 50-hour weeks became 80 hours overnight, and I was expected to cover for my superiors who no longer came to the ward or clinics.   

I decided to leave full-time medicine and pursue my other passions, including design, health informatics and strategic thinking.  What I want to achieve is a more effective and efficient health system that improves the clinical experience, reduces the administrative load, helps clinicians make better decisions faster, and reduces the rates of burnout and intention to quit in clinicians who are holding down the front line.  

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I joined the Clinical UX academy, and Orion Health shared my vision for improving health systems, and feel ever grateful for those I have met on this journey to make things better.  

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