• Sue Stanaway, Micheal Chieng (Education Award), Tim Oughton, Phil Brosnan
  • Education Award, Tim Oughton, Michael Chieng, Phil Brosnan

Michael Chieng, Doctor, Medical Research (25)

AIMES Education Award 2018

Former Rangitoto College head boy Michael Chieng currently works as a doctor at North Shore Hospital, gaining experience in various departments; including surgery, orthopaedics, emergency, as well as medicine and its subspecialties. He has also maintained an interest in clinical research which began when he was a medical student and has since developed into a growing number of publications.

Michael was born at the very hospital he now works in, attended Murrays Bay Primary and Intermediate before moving on to Rangitoto College and then attending the University of Auckland, where he was accepted into the medical program in 2011.
In his third year of medical training Michael elected to undertake a research studentship in public health. His project examined the risks of cycling on New Zealand roads compared with other recreational activities. This work gained national traction, including a feature in the New Zealand Herald, when he proposed that road cycling was 35 times safer than playing rugby when comparing ACC claims for each activity. Michael says he wanted to understand the reasons people feel reluctant to cycle on our roads but perhaps feel more comfortable with taking other risks in their lives. This projects findings were also published in the Journal of Transport and Health last year.
In 2016 Michael embarked on an elective to Scandinavia, known for its advanced medical care and world-class facilities. In Denmark, he performed an internship with the gastroenterology department at Copenhagen’s largest and most specialised hospital. There he learnt from leaders in the field of Parenteral Nutrition – the administration of nutrition via the veins, completely bypassing the normal gut digestive process. This is used for patients with intestinal failure to prevent dietary deficiencies and ultimately starvation. In Copenhagen, Michael was involved with performing scientific analysis on patients to precisely calculate inputs and outputs of nutrients.
Michael brought back knowledge and skills from this overseas experience and in November last year presented a research paper at the New Zealand Society of Gastroenterology Annual Scientific Meeting titled 'Catheter-related venous thrombosis in hospital patients receiving parenteral nutrition at North Shore Hospital’. This was led by the Nutrition Support Team at Waitemata DHB. They found that the incidence of venous thrombosis in our cohort of Parenteral Nutrition patients was reassuringly comparable to international data.
In the past year Michael has also been published in the New Zealand Medical Journal. He wrote a case report titled 'Clostridium difficile infections in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease'. The purpose of this publication was to update clinicians on the latest literature consensus for this type of infection in a high-risk group. Michael suggested that the way we treat patients with inflammatory bowel disease who develop these infections may differ from standard populations. He says the gut microbiome is an extremely interesting area to study and may prove a focus for his future research.
Currently Michael is working on an international research project with a group of doctors from Germany and a clinical supervisor based at North Shore. When this is complete he plans to present the work on the world stage.
At the conclusion of Michael's medical studies at the University of Auckland he was nominated as one of five finalists for the JDK North Prize in Clinical Medicine – a result of achieving the highest “distinction” grade in all of his medical rotations throughout his undergraduate study. He was also one of five students to be nominated for the Sir Carrick Robertson Prize in Surgery. He was the only student in the graduating class to be named as a finalist for both premier awards.
Michael says his dedication to academia was largely fostered at Rangitoto College. He was a competitive gymnast participating in competitions in Germany, the United States and Australia. At Rangitoto his focus turned towards academic pursuits, achieving many successes, including premier awards across the three science disciplines as well as economics and statistics. He was elected Head Boy in his final year and given the opportunity to travel to Harvard University to participate in a leadership symposium as well as an international future problem solving competition in Michigan.
Michael hopes that his research will extend the boundaries of medical knowledge and inspire others to do the same. With the help of this AIMES Award he wishes to present more of his research at both international and domestic conferences. The financial assistance will help contribute to conference registration as well as publishing costs.

Michael Chieng receives the AIMES Education Award from the North Harbour Club – sponsored by Kristin School – including a cash grant of $15,000.