Rate My Professor Tony Dowell

Emeritus Professor Tony Dowell holds the title of Professor of Primary Health Care in the Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice at the University of Otago, Wellington, within the Faculty of Medicine. He qualified in Medicine with an MBChB from the University of Leeds, UK, and holds fellowships from the Royal College of General Practitioners (FRCGP) and the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (FRNZCGP). His career commenced with junior medical training in the UK, followed by work in Malawi, central Africa, and general practice training in the UK. Prior to joining Otago, he entered academic practice in Leeds, where he served as the inaugural Director of the Centre for Research in Primary Care. In 1997, he arrived at the University of Otago to take up the inaugural Chair of General Practice and Head of Department, while maintaining his role as a practicing General Practitioner at the Island Bay Medical Centre.

Professor Dowell's research specializations encompass mental health care, health services research, and communication in health care consultation settings. He has contributed to primary mental health service delivery through evaluations of initiatives, development and piloting of toolkits, the Anti-depressant Cessation Trial (ACT) on SSRI withdrawal for stable depression, and a problem-solving cognitive behavioural ultra-brief intervention (UBI) in routine primary care. As a member of a WHO panel for ICD-11 mental disorder classification, he advanced taxonomy efforts. A founding member of the Applied Research on Communication in Health (ARCH) group, his projects examined consultation content in diabetes care, overweight patient management, and interpreted consultations. He also developed primary care performance indicators and participated in Quality and Safety Commission panels for the Atlas of Variation and Ambulatory Sensitive Hospitalisation indicators. Key publications include Dowell et al. (2026), 'An overview of the impact of an embedded evaluation of the immunisation education, training and clinical support programme during the New Zealand COVID-19 pandemic' in Cureus; Jones et al. (2026), 'A population-based study of traumatic brain injury incidence and mechanisms in New Zealand: 2021–2022 compared with 2010–2011' in Lancet Regional Health: Western Pacific; and Bibby et al. (2025), 'Respiratory multi-viral rapid-antigen point-of-care-tests in New Zealand primary care: A mixed-methods pilot' in BJGP Open. His contributions have shaped primary care practices in mental health, communication, and quality improvement.