Ranta was born in Germany.[1] She obtained her medical degree from Pennsylvania State University, and also has a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and biology from St Mary's College of Maryland.[2] She moved to New Zealand in 2007, where she was initially a consultant neurologist and lead stroke physician at the MidCentral District Health Board.[2]
Ranta completed a postgraduate certificate in public health at Massey University in 2010, and a PhD titled Transient Ischaemic Attack and Stroke Electronic Decision Support to Improve Stroke Care in New Zealand at the University of Otago.[3][2] Ranta was appointed associate professor at Otago in 2017,[4] and full professor in 2021.[5] As of 2024, she is head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago's Wellington campus.[1]
Ranta's research is focused on stroke care and the development of interventions to improve stroke care.[5] Ranta led Health Research Council-funded research that showed significant variations in stroke care across New Zealand, for instances some patients received follow-up care within 1–2 weeks while others waited up to five months.[6] There were also differences in care received by Māori and Pacific patients.[6] Ranta has worked on decreasing such inequities in stroke care, leading the development of tools such as electronic decision support tools for stroke prevention, for use by GPs, and ways to improve access to stroke specialists from rural healthcare services.[5]
