Rodney Thornton Jackson (born 1954) is a New Zealand medically trained epidemiologist who has had lead roles in publicly funded research focussing on systems to effectively identify risk factors in the epidemiology of chronic diseases, in particular cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). This involved linking large cohort studies to regional and national electronic health databases and enabling the generation of new risk-prevention equations using web-based tools, such as the PREDICT model, to implement, monitor and improve risk assessment and management guidelines. Research on asthma in which Jackson participated influenced decisions made by the New Zealand Ministry of Health, and he has contributed to public debate on dietary risk factors for heart attacks and strokes. Following an evidence-based approach to identification of disparities in medical outcomes for different groups within the New Zealand population, Jackson took a position on racism in the medical sector. In 2020, he became a frequent commentator in the media on the approach of the New Zealand government to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 1999, Jackson has been professor of epidemiology at the University of Auckland.
Education and career At the University of Auckland, Jackson obtained a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in 1974, and a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MB ChB) in 1977. A postgraduate diploma in obstetrics and gynaecology (DipObst) was completed at Auckland in 1980, as was a postgraduate diploma in community health (DipComH) from the University of Otago in 1983. Jackson completed a Master of Medical Sciences (MMedSc) in community health at the University of Auckland in 1984, and a PhD in epidemiology at the same institution in 1989. He also trained in public health medicine, receiving his fellowship in public health medicine in 1990. Between 1990 and 1998, Jackson held roles as a senior lecturer and associate professor at University of Auckland, with a position in 1996 as visiting professor at the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford. From 1999 to 2003, Jackson was professor and head of the Department of Community Health, in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, at Auckland. Since 2004, he has been professor of epidemiology, and served as head of the Section of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, in the School of Population Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, between 2004 and 2009.
Epidemiologic studies
Integration of data Since around 2000, Jackson's main research has focused on integrating public health and healthcare epidemiology by linking individual and national data, scalable from individual patients to patient groups to entire populations. He initially established the PREDICT study and subsequently led the establishment of the VIEW research programs. In 2011, Jackson co-authored an article in The New Zealand Medical Journal that challenged the manner in which New Zealand district health boards (DHBs) had managed the health needs of patients with long-term conditions. While the article acknowledged that some chronic diseases were preventable by "addressing shared risk factors, mainly tobacco use, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity...these interventions are dependent on several key factors; accurate identification of high-risk patients; systematic offering of interventions to these patients and; long-term self-management and maintenance." The paper suggested the use of information technology to provide a more patient-centred approach that linked data from the initial screening through to medical interventions and rehabilitation. Jackson was involved in research in 2018 that created three data-based populations: a New Zealand population derived from Statistics New Zealand's Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), a 2013 census population and a 2013 Health Service Utilisation population. The aim of the research was to compare the differences in cardiovascular disease prevalence estimates derived from each of the cohorts. The data showed largest percentage differences between the IDI and the other populations for males and those aged from 15 to 34 years, but the largest differences were for people living in deprived areas, with ethnic distributing varying across the three cohorts. The study noted that the "Health Service Utilisation population generally overestimated cardiovascular disease prevalence, while the Census population generally underestimated it...[and concluded that]...The New Zealand IDI population is the most comprehensive and appropriate national cohort for use in health and social research." In 2021, Jackson co-led a team that was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand to create an "anonymized register of cardiovascular and related risks to help combat the likes of diabetes, gout, obesity and heart failure" in the five-year VAREANZ (Vascular Risk Equity for All New Zealanders)research programme. A paper on the methodology to be used in this programme co-authored by Jackson noted that while there were some limitations to the data gathering, the strength of the programme was that the "datasets are ideal for examining variation across demographic or clinically-defined groups in the use of hospital services, outpatient clinics and pharmacotherapy or other research questions relating to treatment, outcomes and prognosis for CVD and related conditions."
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