Associate Professor Ben Gray 

Associate Professor and PDE Module Convenor

Background and interests

Ben Gray joined the Department in 2006 as a Senior Lecturer in General Practice. He is an Otago graduate from the first class at the Wellington Clinical School. He worked as a GP for more than 30 years, first in Waitara, Taranaki and most recently at Newtown Union Health Service (NUHS). He retired from clinical practice in 2020. Waitara had a significant Māori population and NUHS a very diverse population with significant numbers of refugees from many parts of the world. The practice has developed significant strengths in long term condition management, cross cultural care and interprofessional practice. He completed a Masters in Bioethics and Health Law May 2014 with a dissertation titled “How does the concept of cultural competence affect the practice of bioethics and health law”. He is active in the Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law and is a regular presenter at the Otago Bioethics Centre Seminar Series. He is a distinguished Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners.

Teaching activities

Undergraduate medical education

• Module Convener for Professional Development and Ethics (PDE) for years 4, 5 and Trainee Interns
• Teaching lectures and tutorials on professionalism and ethics
• Teaching in the 4th year General Practice Module on long-term conditions
• Teaching in the 5th year General Practice Module on teamwork and interprofessionalism.

Postgraduate education

• Teaching in postgraduate courses on cultural competence
• Convenor of the the Pacific Health paper

Research activities

Ben's research interests are diverse. Current main focus is around the use of interpreters in medical consultations and cultural competence. Other interests are long-term condition management, interprofessional practice and reflective practice in undergraduate education.