Vaughan Poutawera is an Orthopaedic Surgeon based in Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. He practices at Tauranga and Whakatane public hospitals and Grace private hospital. Vaughan graduated from the University of Otago Medical School in 1999 and became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2008. Vaughan worked as an Orthopaedic Fellow at university hospitals in Toronto, Canada and Zurich Switzerland 2009-2010 before returning to New Zealand to take up his Specialist Consultant post with the Bay of Plenty District Health Board in 2011. Vaughan's interest in working in the developing world was initiated in medical school when in his final year, he worked for three months in South Africa. Vaughan travels to Rarotonga to consult and operate on orthopaedic patients every 18-24 months, and is involved with the training of Pacific Island surgeons in the Solomons Islands. Vaughan participated in the inaugural New Zealand Medical Assistance Team (NZMAT) team members course in 2013 and is involved with the ongoing development of NZMAT . He was the team Orthopaedic Surgeon on the Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT) Bravo rotation in Tacloban, Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.