Rate My Professor Michelle Wise

Associate Professor Michelle Wise is the Deputy Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the School of Medicine, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland. She holds a Doctor of Medicine, along with BSc and MSc qualifications, and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (FRANZCOG). As a clinician-scientist, Wise practices as a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Auckland City Hospital and contributes to medical education, including delivering quality improvement teaching to medical students over more than a decade.

Her primary research interests include induction of labour, developing and implementing clinical guidelines, abortion services, and endometrial hyperplasia. Wise has led key randomised controlled trials such as the OBLIGE trial, which compared outpatient balloon catheter versus inpatient prostaglandin for induction of labour and was published in 2020, and the Mi-LABOUR trial assessing mifepristone versus placebo to increase spontaneous labour rates in individuals with a prior caesarean section. She is a key author on highly cited Cochrane systematic reviews, including 'Levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine device (LNG-IUD) for symptomatic endometriosis following surgery' (2021), 'Obesity and endometrial hyperplasia and cancer in premenopausal women: a systematic review' (2016), 'Combined hormonal contraceptives for heavy menstrual bleeding' (2019), and 'Levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system for endometrial hyperplasia' (2020). Additional significant publications cover interventions for heavy menstrual bleeding via network meta-analysis (2022) and factors influencing vaginal birth after caesarean at Middlemore Hospital. Wise has secured substantial funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand, including over $1.2 million for a trial on self-assessment of ongoing pregnancy after early medical abortion. She has contributed to national guidelines on prevention of early-onset neonatal group B streptococcus infection (2014) and served on the Standards Committee for abortion care standards in Aotearoa New Zealand (2018). Her expertise informs public discourse on reproductive health topics, including COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy, menstrual changes post-vaccination, and hormone therapy options for menopause.