Rate My Professor John Woodfield

Associate Professor John Woodfield serves in the Department of Surgery and Critical Care at the Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, Faculty of Medicine. He holds the qualifications MBChB (Otago), DTM&H (Liverpool), PhD (Otago), and FRACS. As a general and colorectal surgeon at Dunedin Hospital, he was promoted to Associate Professor effective 1 February 2026. Woodfield convenes the ALM6 Ward Management Surgery rotation, provides clinical teaching for ALM4 students, and tutors ELM2 Integrated Cases. He is a member of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the Colorectal Surgical Society of Australia and New Zealand.

His research focuses on measuring and preventing surgical complications, improving preoperative fitness through high-intensity interval training, colorectal surgery including low anterior resection syndrome, clinical audit via Otago Clinical Audit, eHealth for patient support in enhanced recovery programs, bowel preparation protocols, loop ileostomy outcomes, and medical challenges in resource-poor settings such as trauma, tuberculosis, and infertility in rural Africa. He contributes to international networks including STRATA, DISCO, and LARS International. Key publications include 'Integration of a patient-orientated eHealth intervention in the setting of an established enhanced recovery after surgery program' (mHealth, 2026), 'Adult caecal intussusception: Diagnosis and management' (ANZ Journal of Surgery, 2025), 'The impact of metachronous colorectal neoplasia requiring intervention following index polypectomy' (ANZ Journal of Surgery, 2025), 'Association of Preoperative High-Intensity Interval Training With Fitness and Clinical Outcomes' (JAMA Network Open, 2023), 'Strategies for Antibiotic Administration for Bowel Preparation' (JAMA Surgery, 2021), and 'Patient reporting of complications after surgery: an international patient survey' (BMJ Open, 2019). His scholarship advances surgical outcomes and patient-centered care.