An interview with Dr. Ula

My vision for the future of proactive, personalised healthcare in New Zealand.

Dr Ula Heywood, co-founder of Autonomy and lead physician doctor, previously worked in emergency medicine in the public health system and as a Westpac Rescue Helicopter doctor. Now her focus is further upstream.

“I spent many years caring for people at the most critical stages of illness and injury. Acute and hospital medicine in New Zealand does an extraordinary job saving lives and managing complex disease under significant time and resource pressures. But much of that work happens late in the story of a person’s health.

Over time, I became increasingly interested in what happens before people reach crisis point. Many of the conditions we see every day, cardiovascular disease, metabolic illness, chronic pain, burnout, develop over years. Yet the structure of most health systems, here and globally, is designed primarily around responding to illness once it becomes significant enough to require medical intervention.

That gap, the space between ‘generally well’ and ‘clearly unwell’, is where I believe the next evolution of healthcare sits.

Autonomy was built to work in that upstream space. Rather than replacing traditional care, our aim is to complement it by focusing on prevention, early risk detection, and sustained behaviour change. We look at the whole person, sleep, nutrition, movement, stress, metabolic markers, mental wellbeing, alongside conventional medical assessment.

You could think of it as adding another layer to healthcare: one that supports people earlier, for longer, and in more depth than standard appointment structures typically allow. Most people know the broad principles of good health, but turning knowledge into consistent daily habits is difficult, especially without structured support.

That’s where our team model comes in. Doctors provide medical oversight and clinical context. Our medically-led health habit coaches work with patients on the practical ‘how’ of change; building routines, troubleshooting barriers, and supporting long-term adherence. Nurses, data tracking, and monitoring technology help us personalise programs and track progress objectively.

My vision is a healthcare landscape where precision medicine and prevention sit alongside acute care, where we not only treat disease effectively when it occurs, but also reduce the likelihood of people needing those services in the first place.

At its heart, Autonomy is about extending health-span: the years people can live independently, energetically, and free from preventable chronic disease. It’s not about rejecting conventional medicine, it’s about expanding what healthcare can offer when we move earlier, stay longer, and support the whole person.”

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