Catherine Ann Malcolm Stedman is a New Zealand pharmacologist and gastroenterologist, and is a clinical professor at the University of Otago, specialising in hepatitis C drug development. She is the first woman gastroenterologist to become a professor of medicine in New Zealand.
Academic career
Stedman completed her undergraduate medical degree at the University of Otago, and then undertook a PhD titled Role of nuclear receptors in bile acid disposition and detoxification at the University of Sydney in 2006.[1] Her clinical training in pharmacology and gastroenterology took place at Christchurch Hospital and Westmead Hospital in Sydney.[2] Stedman then worked in the Salk Institute, and on drug safety for a pharmaceutical company.[2] Stedman returned to Christchurch Hospital as a consultant gastroenterologist and joined the faculty of the University of Otago, rising to clinical associate professor in 2015 and full professor in 2023.[3][4] She is the first woman gastroenterologist to become a professor of medicine in New Zealand.[2]
Stedman's research focuses on drug development for hepatitis C treatment, although she is also interested in autoimmune liver diseases, and how they affect the lives and life expectancy of people who have them. Stedman has been a principal investigator in a large number of clinical trials aimed at testing antiviral therapies, and led the first successful clinical trial in the world to show that oral antiviral treatment could cure hepatitis C.[4] Stedman has also led trials for antiviral therapies aimed at patients with liver failure resulting from hepatitis C.[4] As a result of these trials, and other potential therapies, the World Health Organization has proposed elimination of hepatitis C.[4][5][6][7]
As of 2024, Stedman is the president of the New Zealand Society of Gastroenterology.[2]
Honours and awards
In 2019 Stedman was awarded the Gold Research Medal by the University of Otago Christchurch campus.[8]
Devin Razavi-Shearer; Ivane Gamkrelidze; Mindie H Nguyen; et al. (June 2018). "Global prevalence, treatment, and prevention of hepatitis B virus infection in 2016: a modelling study". The lancet. Gastroenterology & hepatology. 3 (6): 383–403. doi:10.1016/S2468-1253(18)30056-6. ISSN2468-1253. PMID29599078. WikidataQ56830540.
