Dr Natalie Gauld appointed as Research Advisor and Best Practice Advocate

We are very pleased to welcome Dr Natalie Gauld to Motor Neurone Disease NZ as Research Advisor and Best Practice Advocate.

Natalie is a pharmacist with a MPharm and PhD degrees and has honorary roles in the Department of Paediatrics and School of Pharmacy at the University of Auckland.

She is passionate about improving access to medicines and optimising patient centred care, and brings extensive experience in health care innovation, implementation and evaluation. Her work included successful applications and tools for prescription to non-prescription reclassifications (switches), including ground-breaking and award-winning switches such as vaccinations and oral contraceptives, and a reclassification to enable nurses to provide hepatitis C treatment without prescription. Natalie has also led research projects on new health service delivery, as well as barriers and enablers to increasing access to medicines. This innovative work has been recognised with awards including Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to pharmacy and health.

Natalie was diagnosed with MND (ALS) in March 2022. She continues to work part-time on medicines access and research and will be working 20 hours a month for MND NZ. She says: “MND NZ is an important organisation for our community, and I am very pleased to start working with them to maximise the benefit of the MND Registry, help encourage MND research in NZ, and help with medicines or health care access as needed. I was impressed with MND NZ’s Best Practice recommendations last year and look forward to advocating for their use around NZ for the benefit of patients.”

We are excited about adding Natalie’s knowledge and expertise to further developing collaboration between health care providers and MND NZ’s community-based services across the country.

Natalie rides her three-wheeler on as many trails around New Zealand as possible, while fundraising for MND NZ. She lives in Auckland with her husband and one of her two adult daughters.