mahi | our projects

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Our mahi in Te Tairāwhiti focusses on the delivery of surgical services to our hapori and ensures that whānau voices are heard in the experiences of these surgical services. Preliminary findings of whānau experiences of apronectomy (removal of excess abdominal skin) surgery in Te Tairāwhiti were presented at the 2024 Te Rangawairua o Paratene Ngata Research Centre Tātai Oranga Symposium. The final reporting for this project will be available December, 2025.

Building on Dr Rahiri's PhD from 2020, this Health Research Council of New Zealand-funded project aims to examine the epidemiology of bariatric surgery in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and the efficacy of bariatric surgery concerning cardiovascular disease risk by ethnicity. Dr Rahiri is supervising two Biomedsci Honours medical students from the University of Auckland, both of whom were awarded a Healthy Hearts New Zealand Pūtahi Manawa scholarship to undertake research with Dr Rahiri. The final reporting for this project will be available July, 2026.

This project was funded by the Kate Edger Charitable Trust and focussed on identifying the ways in which wāhine Māori and Pasifika developed their own supportive network to ensure successful selection on to competitive surgical training pathways. Click on the link below to access the open access publication for this mahi.

This project was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand and evaluated the responsiveness of the surgical evidence base to Māori across all studies that discussed or reported on Māori peoples, places, peri-operative care, and surgical outcomes in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Click on the link below to access the open-access publication for this mahi.