Waikato Cardiothoracic Unit

🚨 🇳🇿 Day 2 Recap of the Annual Cardiothoracic Surgery Meeting of Aotearoa New Zealand 🇳🇿 🚨

It was great to start off with a talk on patient & cultural perspectives to better integrate personalised care plans. We were fortunate to have Dr Anna Rolleston lend us her time & research to share ways we can improve our care delivery.

We were then challenged to Think Aorta by Alfred Health’s vascular medicine specialist Dr Geoff Lester. A story of resilience, tremendous accomplishment, and ongoing drive to improve the role of patient voices & awareness to a complex and serious disease. He later shared the mission of hearts4heart.

Afterwards we took to the skies to learn about opportunities to integrate improved team culture and safety from experts in the aerospace industry. ✈️

Air New Zealand Captain Nathan Johnston was joined by Dr Marcus Lee to discuss implementing strategies for safety in high stakes environments.

Marina Kunz then shared her work on designing systems for just culture & high reliability. Both talks had innumerable applications to health care.

Professor Martin Stiles & Dr John Doty reviewed the role of arrhythmia teams & atrial fibrillation ablation encouraging us to help patients get their rhythms sorted.

Finally we were fortunate to have presidents from The Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand and ANZSCTS share the history and future of their societies- be sure to join & help progress care in our regions. Thanks to Dr. Mayanna Lund and Dr. Ashutosh Hardikar!

We wrapped up an engaging day Trinity Wharf Tauranga with a delegate dinner Classic Flyers Conference & Events Centre.

He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata

Stay tuned as we come in for landing on day 3!





Intermountain Health
Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora
Health NZ - Waikato
University of Auckland - Waipapa Taumata Rau

🚨 🇳🇿 Day 1 Recap of the 2026 Annual Cardiothoracic Surgery Meeting of Aotearoa New Zealand 🇳🇿 🚨 held in Tauranga at Trinity Wharf Tauranga .

A full line up of our international experts was a great way to kick off this year’s programme! 🇯🇵 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 🇰🇪

Day 1 took off with abstract presentations and launched straight in to Thoracic Innovations. Dr’s Andrew Maloney from Wellstar Health System and Damien Boyd from St Vincent's Health Australia discussed topics on palliative medicine for heart teams and post operative pain management.

Dr. Ianthe Boden from University of Tasmania and Launceston Hospital shared her groundbreaking work in physiotherapy and new trial data looking at reducing postoperative complications.

Our other international speakers rounded out the afternoon to share their world-class care delivery on complex heart failure and minimally invasive cardiac surgery.

We were privileged to have Dr. Stephen McKellar & John Doty from Intermountain Health in Utah and Dr. Soh Hosoba from Nagoya present their cutting edge work. Robert Groom from AGC Tenwek Cardiothoracic Centre discussed shock team development to finish the early afternoon sessions.

Johnson & Johnson sponsored a VATS simulation skills lab- hosted by our own Dr. Felicity Meikle.

Stay tuned for the Day 2 recap!

What an incredible morning our Clinical Nurse Specialist, Georgia Miller, had at Fairfield Intermediate School with their Science Enrichment class.

Georgia spent time sharing what a ‘day in the life’ of a cardiac RNFSA looks like, from heart anatomy to the advanced technology and team work that makes heart surgery possible.

Students got a close up look into heart valve implants, surgical instruments and 3D printed sternums- learning how the breastbone is closed after surgery. It’s always inspiring to see young minds so curious about the science behind heart health and surgery.

Thanks for inviting us to be a part of your science program. Future nurses and surgeons in the making 🧑‍⚕️ 👩🏽‍⚕️ 👨🏽‍⚕️