Kaitaia GP Lance O'Sullivan has been presented with a Distinguished Alumni Award by the University of Auckland for his leadership and innovation.
"It's a huge honour to get this award, and I'm really proud of the university and the medical education I had there," Dr O'Sullivan said.
"This is a milestone for me. I was the first to attend university from my father's family, and to be considered a worthy graduate of this university is an incredible honour."
Dr O'Sullivan's story is well known, from his angry youth to the rocky road of medical school and finally graduating in 2002.
He specialised as a GP, focusing on improving Maori health, and has led the way in delivering medtech solutions to help combat poor access to healthcare for often isolated low-income communities, driven by a passionate belief in equal access to healthcare and the need to overcome the impact of child poverty.
He and wife Tracy have worked hard to achieve that in the Far North, and now they are helping it spread south.
"It's this mahi that he leads every day, working to help alleviate child poverty and to help Maori, especially Maori rangatahi, to get the healthcare they need," a university spokesman said.
"One of the diseases of poverty in New Zealand is rheumatic fever. We have one of the highest rates in the developed world. It's really a Third World disease, wiped out in most developed countries.
"Prevention of rheumatic fever can stop a child developing life-changing rheumatic heart disease.
When Dr O'Sullivan (Te Rawara, Ngati Hau, Ngati Maru) and his wife arrived in Kaitaia rheumatic fever was rife in the community, and children (usually Maori) who had had several bouts of rheumatic fever were developing rheumatic heart disease.
"Lance and Tracy established healthcare company Navilluso Medical, which set up the MOKO Foundation in 2013, and the iMOKO programme, a school-based service focused on preventing rheumatic fever in mainly Maori children."
The iMOKO programme was introduced to Far North primary schools, taking throat swabs of any children presenting with sore throats, an early indicator of rheumatic fever. Those who tested positive for strep A were started on a course of oral penicillin to stop it at that early stage.
Dr O'Sullivan had gone further, working to ensure the living conditions of his young patients were improved. In his now home town of Kaitaia he fostered local groups to help improve whanau homes too, making them warm and healthy.
Now mobile technology had enabled iMOKO, the digital cloud-based phone app version of the programme, to spread faster and further, low-income Far North families staying connected with prepaid broadband.
iMOKO was now in 40 primary schools, kohanga reo and early childhood centres, involving more than 20,000 young people, in Northland and Auckland.