When University of Auckland fourth-year medical student Ronan Payinda saw a patient’s surgery cancelled because they hadn’t stopped eating or adjusted their medications, something clicked.
Each year, thousands of surgeries are cancelled in New Zealand alone, and up to 30% of those cancellations are due to preventable patient-related factors. Research shows that even four weeks of prehabilitation including physical, mental, and nutritional preparation can significantly reduce cancellations and improve outcomes.
While most medical students focus exclusively on ward shifts, textbooks, and exams, Ronan is building a MedTech start-up alongside his hospital placements. His venture, SurgReady, is a digital platform designed to support patients through the often confusing and stressful lead-up to surgery. Rather than leaving patients overwhelmed in the final weeks before an operation, SurgReady aims to guide and empower them from the moment they’re added to a surgical waitlist.
SurgReady is a personalised platform that helps patients take the right steps like quitting smoking, managing medications, and meeting pre-surgery health targets well in advance of their procedure. It combines educational tools with automated reminders, tailored to both individual patient needs and hospital protocols.
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