Rate My Professor Paul Trani

Dr Paul Trani serves as a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health at the University of Otago, where he contributes to medical education and research. He is also a Staff Specialist Developmental and Community Paediatrician at Dunedin Hospital and a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP). His specialised interests include behavioural-developmental medicine, paediatric psychiatry, child abuse medicine, adolescent medicine, school health, and immigration medicine. As a dedicated community paediatrician, Dr Trani strives to provide the best possible health care to children and their families, exceeding expectations for their medical home and raising the visibility of his specialty through practice and professional advocacy.

Dr Trani has extensive experience in coordinating complex medical care, motivating communities to improve health, leading medical teams, medical simulation, and mentoring future health professionals. He enjoys teaching medical students, paediatric residents, and allied health students in both small group and large lecture environments, and has begun postgraduate studies aimed at improving medical education. His teaching excellence has been recognised with the Senior Medical Officer Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Dunedin School of Medicine in 2018 and the Dean's Commendation to Senior Staff for Teaching. Dr Trani co-authored the 2021 paper "Nature walks versus medication: A pre-registered randomized controlled trial in a primary care youth mental health setting," published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology. He has presented on clinical issues in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, and serves on the Curriculum Review Group for Community Child Health advanced training. An expatriate American who became a New Zealand citizen after a decade in Aotearoa, Dr Trani balances his professional commitments with family life alongside his Kiwi partner and two young children.