55 | Dr. Zoe Raos on indigenisation, environmental sustainability & gastroenterology

For Matariki, we have Dr. Zoe Raos! 

Dr. Zoe Raos (Te Āti Awa) is a gastroenterologist in Waitematā, Tāmaki Makaurau. She lives on the Shore with her husband Ben, their two tamariki and their dog. She completed medical school, basic and advanced gastroenterology and general medical training in Auckland, and was involved with leadership roles throughout her training, becoming the Chair of the Binational College Trainees’ Committee which included being a Director of the RACP Board. She won the RACP Trainee of the Year Award, prior to starting a three-year clinical fellowship at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford in General Medicine, Hepatology, Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Endoscopy. Zoe has worked at Waitematā DHB since her return from the UK, and collaborated to set up the transition clinic for patients with IBD moving between paeds and adult services. She has written a popular study guide for the RACP exams, now in its second edition, with other collaborative publications themed around quality care. She is a RACP examiner for the Clinical Exam, and a Training Supervisor.

Zoe joined the New Zealand Society of Gastroenterology Executive, was elected as president-elect and is the current President until November 2022. She has led the NZSG through times of great change, including developing a cohesive pandemic response, whilst navigating the Society through major externally-led structural changes. Zoe collaborates with other NZSG equity warriors, who have made positive steps towards celebrating diversity and, through governance, creating a future equitable gastroenterology workforce that honours Te Tiriti. She has lost count of the committees she is on – one of the most influential is a global Green Endoscopy Whatsapp group - and spends too much time on Twitter. She loves teaching and mentoring, and is proud to have received awards for both over the years. Zoe loves skiing, cooking and running, spending time with her beautiful whānau, hanging with wonderful friends and colleagues, playing the ukulele and has just started weaving tāniko as part of her cultural journey as a proud wahine Maori.

In this episode, we discuss her journey into gastroenterology, indigenising medicine & gastroenterology, navigating motion sickness in scopes, The Aunties and their kaupapa, parenting and neurodiversity, environmental sustainability within medicine and of course, her love for gastroenterology.

Mentioned in podcast:
Peter Raos: https://peterraos.com/ & https://peter-raos.business.site/
The Aunties: https://aunties.co.nz/about-the-aunties
‘Autism’ in Te Reo Māori: tangata whaitakiwātanga 

As always, if you have any feedback or queries, or if you would like to get in touch with the speaker, feel free to get in touch at doctornos@pm.me.

Audio credit:
Bliss by Luke Bergs https://soundcloud.com/bergscloud
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/33DJFs9
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/e9aXhBQDT9Y

Chapters

• 0:00 Zoe Raos
• 2:27 Finding medicine
• 7:13 Sitting RACP exams
• 10:34 Fine arts
• 11:32 Kaupapa for medicine
• 14:05 The Aunties
• 16:07 Indigenous mentorship
• 20:03 Navigating racism with patients
• 25:32 Routine of gastroenterology
• 28:41 Motion sickness in procedures
• 30:05 Representation in gastroenterology
• 46:46 Neurodiversity and parenthood
• 56:18 Climate change & medicine