Rate My Professor Ohad Dar

Dr Ohad Dar serves as the Simulation Centre and Clinical Skills Director at the University of Otago's Otago Medical School within the Faculty of Medicine. He is also a Professional Practice Fellow in the Department of Medicine. In his clinical role, Dr Dar is an Emergency Medicine Specialist at the Emergency Department of Dunedin Hospital, Southern District Health Board. He earned his MBChB from the University of Otago in 2001, obtained Fellowship of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (FACEM) in 2014, and has held full New Zealand medical registration since December 6, 2002. Dr Dar supports the development and enhancement of clinical skills across the medical curriculum and co-directs simulation efforts focused on practical training for healthcare professionals.

Dr Dar's academic interests encompass medical education through simulation, staff and patient safety in infectious disease scenarios, and emergency department overcrowding and capacity visualization. Key publications include 'Using Systems Thinking to Identify Staff and Patient Safety Issues in Infectious Disease Simulation Scenarios' (Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 2021), co-authored with Raymond Phang, Sierra Beck, Joanne Robertson-Smith, Megan Anakin, and others; 'A novel tool to assess and communicate overcrowding and access block in the emergency department' (Emergency Medicine Australasia, 2017), with Jacques Loubser; and 'Visualising Emergency Department Capacity in an Australasian Tertiary Hospital' (Emergency Medicine Australasia, 2017). His innovative teaching methods earned him the Medical Education Unit Award for Innovation in Teaching in 2024 under the Advanced Learning in Medicine Teaching Awards. Additionally, in 2021, he shared the Southern District Health Board and Otago Medical School Best Collaboration Award with Dr Megan Anakin, Dr Sierra Beck, and Joanne Robertson-Smith. Dr Dar's work advances high-fidelity simulation training to improve emergency response capabilities.