Improving Maori health through clinical assessment: Waikare o te Waka o Meihana.

Health professionals play an important role in addressing indigenous health inequalities. This paper describes the further development and a new conceptualisation of the Meihana model (2007) and the Hui process (2011), which together have formed the indigenous health framework in the University of Otago, Christchurch undergraduate medical education programme for 4th-6th year medical students over the past 5 years. The components of the framework are defined followed by description of their application to clinical assessment. The indigenous health framework has been evaluated by medical students, health practitioners, Maori patients and whanau over this time and has been rated favourably as a clinically relevant framework that supports health practitioners to work effectively with Maori patients and whanau.