Renowned dermatologist, Amanda Oakley has dedicated her career to life-saving, early detection of melanoma.

Melanoma accounts for 80% of skin cancer deaths. Over 4,000 people are diagnosed with a form of melanoma every year in New Zealand and around 350 a year die from it. Our rates are the world’s highest and would be higher still if not for the work of Amanda Oakley. Now Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Auckland’s Department of Medicine (as well as a consultant for Waikato DHB, Tristram Clinic and MoleMap), she originally graduated from Bristol University. Arriving in New Zealand in 1979, she sent CVs far and wide ending up at Waikato Hospital when a responding telegram said ‘Start Monday’.

By 1986 Amanda was a specialist dermatologist and started pursuing her professional passions: early diagnosis of melanoma, teledermatology and online publishing. In 1995, she founded DermNet, now the premier web resource for dermatologists, other medical practitioners, researchers, students and consumers worldwide. That same year she initiated video dermatology consultations, leading eventually to the establishment of a Virtual Lesion Clinic and more recently a rapid eTriage teledermoscopy service in the Waikato. Always working at the technological cutting-edge, Amanda is now building a clinical image dataset to help inform artificial intelligence diagnostics.

An esteemed editor and author, committed member of numerous boards and societies throughout her career, winner of an astounding number of awards across medical, technology and education fields, nationally and internationally recognised for her contributions with many fellowships and honorary memberships, she was also awarded the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2018. Amanda’s achievements reflect an incredible dedication to excellence, to advancing her field and ultimately to saving lives, making her an extremely worthy recipient of the 2019 Kudos Lifetime Achievement Award

Adjunct Associate Professor Amanda Oakley

University of Auckland, WDHB

2017 Waikato District Health Board Medical Science Award Finalist | 2019 University of Waikato Lifetime Achievement Award

Renowned dermatologist, Amanda Oakley has dedicated her career to life-saving, early detection of melanoma.

Melanoma accounts for 80% of skin cancer deaths. Over 4,000 people are diagnosed with a form of melanoma every year in New Zealand and around 350 a year die from it. Our rates are the world’s highest and would be higher still if not for the work of Amanda Oakley. Now Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Auckland’s Department of Medicine (as well as a consultant for Waikato DHB, Tristram Clinic and MoleMap), she originally graduated from Bristol University. Arriving in New Zealand in 1979, she sent CVs far and wide ending up at Waikato Hospital when a responding telegram said ‘Start Monday’.

By 1986 Amanda was a specialist dermatologist and started pursuing her professional passions: early diagnosis of melanoma, teledermatology and online publishing. In 1995, she founded DermNet, now the premier web resource for dermatologists, other medical practitioners, researchers, students and consumers worldwide. That same year she initiated video dermatology consultations, leading eventually to the establishment of a Virtual Lesion Clinic and more recently a rapid eTriage teledermoscopy service in the Waikato. Always working at the technological cutting-edge, Amanda is now building a clinical image dataset to help inform artificial intelligence diagnostics.

An esteemed editor and author, committed member of numerous boards and societies throughout her career, winner of an astounding number of awards across medical, technology and education fields, nationally and internationally recognised for her contributions with many fellowships and honorary memberships, she was also awarded the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2018. Amanda’s achievements reflect an incredible dedication to excellence, to advancing her field and ultimately to saving lives, making her an extremely worthy recipient of the 2019 Kudos Lifetime Achievement Award