Rate My Professor Anna Chae

Dr Anna Chae serves as an Assistant Research Fellow in the Department of General Practice and Rural Health within the Dunedin School of Medicine, part of the Otago Medical School at the University of Otago. She earned her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MB ChB) from the University of Otago in 2015. Additionally, she holds a Diploma in Paediatrics and a Certificate in Women’s Health from the University of Auckland. Having immigrated from Korea to New Zealand in 1996 and raised in Auckland, Dr Chae completed rotations in various specialties at Auckland City Hospital, Starship Children’s Hospital, Waitakere Hospital, and North Shore Hospital prior to specializing in general practice. She is fluent in English and Korean and practices as a General Practitioner at Meridian Medical Centre in Dunedin, where she emphasizes family well-being, health education, and disease prevention. She is available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Dr Chae has contributed significantly to research in medical education through her work on threshold concepts in general practice training. She co-authored the BMJ Open article published in 2022, 'Identifying threshold concepts in postgraduate general practice training: a focus group, qualitative study,' with Katherine Hall. This research, funded by the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners and approved by the University of Otago Human Ethics Committee (D20/445), involved a literature review, participant recruitment posted by Dr Chae on social media, focus groups conducted via Zoom with 50 current General Practice Education Programme registrars, recent Fellows, and medical educators between March and June 2021, thematic analysis using NVivo software, triangulation of results, and member checking. The study identified 20 threshold concepts framed as heuristic statements within the Te Whare Tapa Whā model and recommended their integration into the General Practice Education Programme curriculum, including Year 1 teaching and small group reflection sessions. Dr Chae also co-authored a publication on 'Bovine colostrum demonstrates anti-inflammatory and antibacterial activity in in vitro models of intestinal inflammation and infection' with Alan Aitchison, Andrew S. Day, and Jacqueline I. Keenan.