Phillippa Jane Poole is a New Zealand academic, and as of 2019 is a full professor and Head of School at the University of Auckland; she was previously head of the medical programme.
After studying medicine at the University of Auckland, Poole joined the staff, rising to full professor. She was Head of the Medical Programme from 1999âÂÂ2009, then Head of the Department of Medicine, becoming Head of the School of Medicine in 2018. Poole divides her time between academic duties and being a consultant general physician at Auckland City Hospital. She is a past president of the Internal Medicine Society of Australia and New Zealand. In 2010 Poole completed a late-career PhD entitled Medical workforce development in New Zealand: insights from a medical programme.
Poole's research is focussed on the career choices students make in medical school, and the effect of gender on them. One of her findings has been a lack of medical students interested in taking up general practice (something an ageing population will require) and the suggestion that female doctors are more likely to switch to family medicine later in their careers. She is also involved with Cochrane reviews of the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Poole is married with a daughter and lives in Devonport.
In the 2024 KingâÂÂs Birthday Honours, Poole was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to medical education.