Contact Details
- Phone
- +64 4 385 5592
- rob.griffiths@otago.ac.nz
- Position
- Associate Professor
- Department
- Department of Medicine (Wellington)
- Qualifications
- MBChB (Brist) DAvMed (RCP) DIH (Lond) MROM MCCM (NZ) FACOM
- Research summary
- Aviation and Occupational medicine
Research
Associate Professor Robin Griffiths is Director of Occupational & Aviation Medicine, University of Otago Wellington, New Zealand. He heads a “virtual Department” of 18 academic staff based North America, Middle East, Europe and Australasia, who provide international distance teaching and research supervision to students in aviation medicine, occupational medicine and aeromedical retrieval & transport.
He also represents OAM’s interests in the USA, being an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington, the Foundations Program Director at the American College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine and a member of the Council on Education and Academic Affairs. He is medical consultant to the Transport Accident Investigation Commission and Chief Coroner, Airways NZ, and a Principal Clinical Adviser to the Accident Compensation Corporation, as well as other professional consultancies in NZ and overseas.
Research expertise and interest
Rob Griffiths trained in Bristol UK, where he graduated with Honors and the Gold Medal in 1978. After serving in the RAF, he became Chief Medical Officer at the New Zealand Ministry of Transport, where he established the occupational and aviation medicine program in 1987. He is dual Board certified in New Zealand in Occupational Medicine and Public Health Medicine, and holds a Master degree in Public Policy. His passion is distance education and heads a department which provides international distance learning worldwide in aerospace medicine, general occupational medicine, and aeromedical retrieval and transport. Rob is also the Foundations Program Director for the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) and developing an online program initiative. He is working in the School of Public Health as an affiliate professor as part of a collaboration between Otago University and the University of Washington to establish distance education and on-line Continuing Medical Education in the US. He also runs and online Continuing Medical Education program for the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.
Research interests:
- Shift work
- Return to work
- Distance education
- Culture and participation in distance learning
- Aerospace medicine
- Airline cabin safety
- Cabin crew health
- Transport accident investigation
Publications
Griffiths, R. F., & Powell, D. M. C. (2012). The occupational health and safety of flight attendants. Aviation, Space, & Environmental Medicine, 83(5), 514-521. doi: 10.3357/ASEM.3186.2012 Journal - Research Article
Wirawan, I. M. A., Larsen, P. D., Aldington, S., Griffiths, R. F., & Ellis, C. J. (2012). Cardiovascular risk score and cardiovascular events among airline pilots: A case-control study. Aviation, Space, & Environmental Medicine, 83(5), 465-471. doi: 10.3357/ASEM.3222.2012 Journal - Research Article
Zaidi, M. A., Griffiths, R., Beshyah, S. A., Myers, J., & Zaidi, M. A. (2012). Blood and body fluid exposure related knowledge, attitude and practices of hospital based health care providers in United Arab Emirates. Safety & Health at Work, 3(3), 209-215. doi: 10.5491/SHAW.2012.3.3.209 Journal - Research Article
Sykes, A. J., Larsen, P. D., Griffiths, R. F., & Aldington, S. (2012). A study of airline pilot morbidity. Aviation, Space, & Environmental Medicine, 83(10), 1001-1005. doi: 10.3357/asem.3380.2012 Journal - Research Article
Mahony, P. H., Myers, J. A., Larsen, P. D., Powell, D. M., & Griffiths, R. F. (2011). Symptom-based categorization of in-flight passenger medical incidents. Aviation, Space, & Environmental Medicine, 82(12), 1131-1137. doi: 10.3357/ASEM.3099.2011 Journal - Research Article