Ten-week summer scholarships give medical and health sciences students the opportunity to better understand primary care, while the research projects they undertake give us useful information on population health issues.

The 2010 scholarships for medical students funded by Partnership Health with the University of Otago included cardiovascular disease risk assessment; Pacific people and non-financial factors that influence their access to mainstream general practice services, and workforce development, exploring and understanding the learning needs of administrative general practice.

Two scholarships for health-sciences students with the University of Canterbury covered Christchurch earthquakes, looking at how former refugees coped and the other audited youth with type 1 diabetes.