The Verrall Award - Win $500

We are proud to introduce the Verrall Award for the best academic research article published in the NZMSJ each year

This annual prize is valued at $500 and is named after Dr Ayesha Verrall who was instrumental in leading the student committee that founded the journal in the early 2000s.

This prize is sponsored by Professor Frank Frizelle​ of NZMJ.
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Guidelines

1. All academic research articles (including case reports, and systematic and literature reviews) that have not received a previous award for their article, and have a medical student attending a New Zealand University as a first or second author are eligible.
2. Articles submitted by authors who were a New Zealand medical student at the time of writing, and have their article published within two years of graduation will still be considered. Articles published more than two years post- graduation will not be considered.
   
3. The articles are judged using a scoring rubric that assesses the quality of each article section (the purpose of the manuscript, details of the methods/case, discussion and conclusion) as well as how well it aligns with the aims of the journal of producing educational content that is of interest to our readers and written professionally.
   

Previous Winners​

• 2024: Reuben He for his case report titled “Risk factors and treatment window in arteritic anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy: a case study” which can be read here
  
• 2023: Not awarded
  
• 2022: Andrew Heaps, who described the upstream social determinants of asthma in New Zealand in a public health essay which can be read here
  
• 2021: Natasha Mitchell and Dr Russell Walmsley who wrote an article titled "Remote clinical assessment of inflammatory bowel disease using smartphone applications" which can be read here
  
• 2020: Aqeeda Singh, Jan Cowan, Jack Dummer, who wrote the article "The effect of mode of inhaled salbutamol delivery on measures of small airways obstruction in asthma: a comparison of treatment delivered via spacer and nebuliser" which can be read here
• 2019: Andrew Jayasuria, Assoc. Prof. Andy Wearn, Assoc. Prof. Anna Vnuk and Dr Harsh Bhoopatkar, who wrote the article, "Male genital examination in the medical curricula: an exploration of medical students' experience" which can be read here