Keynote international speakers

Dr Thomas S. Ahrens RN, DNS FAAN
Research Scientist
Barnes Jewish Hospital, St. Louis

Tom has lectured both nationally and internationally on critical care topics. He is actively involved in technology application, particularly in terms of hemodynamic monitoring and capnography. Tom has extensively published, including 5 books and over 100 papers. He organized a multi-center study that illustrated how end tidal CO2 could accurately predict survival following cardiac arrests. His book “Hemodynamic waveform analysis” is considered by many to be the finest clinical guide to the topic. His book “Essentials of Oxygenation” was an American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year. Following a controversial article on the value of pulmonary artery monitoring, he led the effort to design the multisociety, international effort to create a web based program on hemodynamic education (www.pacep.org). For this work, he was awarded the 1999 Presidential Citation by the Society of Critical Care Medicine and in 2004 was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing.

Professor Desmond Bohn MB BCh FFARCS, MRCP, FRCPC
Professor, Departments of Anaesthesia & Paediatrics, University of Toronto
Chief, Department of Critical Care Medicine, Hospital for Sick Children

Dr. Bohn graduated from the National University of Ireland (University College Dublin) in 1969 and following internship he undertook postgraduate training in anaesthesia in Bristol between 1971 and 1975. He did a fellowship in paediatric critical care medicine fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children between 1975 and 1976 and a further year of research with Dr. Charles Bryan in the Division of Respirology Physiology. He was appointed as a staff physician in the Department of Critical Care Medicine in 1980, and held the positions of Associate Chief and Research Director in the Department of Critical Care Medicine until 2001. He is also Medical Director of the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Programme at The Hospital for Sick Children. In 2001, Dr. Bohn was appointed Chief of the Department of Critical Care Medicine. His research interests are outcomes based research in children with multi organ failure, and he is published in the areas of acute respiratory failure (ECMO high frequency ventilation and nitric oxide), brain injury, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, fluid therapy in critically ill patients. He has published over 140 papers in peer reviewed medical journals as well as multiple book chapters, serves on the editorial board of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, and is a regular contributor to both national and international symposia.

A/Prof Charles Gomersall
Associate Professor, Dept of Anaesthesia & Intensive Care
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Charles trained in medicine and anaesthesia in London and in Intensive Care in Hong Kong. His research interests include triage, antibiotic pharmacokinetics, probiotics and respiratory protection and an enforced interest in respiratory epidemics. Charles is the editor of ICU web, which is a free access Internet website (www.aic.cuhk.edu.hk/web8). He is also the co-author of the BASIC and Very BASIC courses for junior trainees and medical students.

Professor Gavin Joynt
Professor
Chinese University of Hong Kong

Gavin currently holds the post of Professor in the Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Intensive Care Unit at the Prince of Wales Hospital. He obtained his specialist qualifications in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care in South Africa before receiving the FHKCA (Hong Kong), FHKAM (Hong Kong), FFICANZCA (Aus/NZ), FJFICM(Aus/NZ) and FCCP. He is Chairman of the Board of Intensive Care (HKCA). He is on the editorial/review board of numerous international publications. His interests include Ethics, Education, Infection Control, Antibiotic Pharmacokinetics, Central Venous Catheterization and Tissue Oxygenation.

Kim has an international reputation for the development of effective workplace cultures in healthcare. Such cultures put the patient at the centre, are clinically effective, continually modernising and realise shared governance principles. Core components of her work include helping healthcare organisations and clinical teams to develop, implement and evaluate practice development strategies and work-based learning initiatives. Other areas of interest include the study of practice expertise, developing consultant practitioners’ effectiveness, and facilitating the development of team and service effectiveness across different specialisms within nursing as well as across other healthcare professions. Kim is Visiting Professor to Bournemouth University and Visiting Fellow to Brighton University. She has extensive experience as a practitioner (critical care nursing), clinical educator, practice developer, practice-based researcher and programme director for both undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in nursing. In 2000, Kim was awarded the CBE for quality patient services arising from her work on operationalising the consultant nurse role.

Professor John C. Marshall MD, FRCSC, FACS
Professor of Surgery, University of Toronto
Attending Surgeon and Intensivist, St. Michael’s Hospital

John’s is a graduate at the University of Toronto and undertook his surgical training at Dalhousie University in Halifax, followed by a research fellowship in surgical immunobiology and critical care at McGill University. His interests are sepsis, trauma, and critical care. His academic interests are sepsis and the dynamics of host-microbial interactions. His CIHR-funded laboratory studies the mechanisms that regulate neutrophil survival in sepsis and critical illness through modulation of programmed cell death or apoptosis in the neutrophil. He is the principal investigator of the AATICC (Appropriate Antimicrobial Therapy in Critical Care ) program. He has been actively involved in the design and conduct of clinical trials in sepsis, serving as an advisor to a number of pharmaceutical companies undertaking research in this area. He serves as the Chair of the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group and as the Treasurer and Chair-Elect of the International Sepsis Forum. He is a Clinical Councilor of the Shock Society. Dr. Marshall has published more than 160 peer reviewed papers and 65 chapters and has edited 2 books. He is on a number of Editorial Boards including Shock, Critical Care, and Current Opinion in Critical Care. He is married with one daughter.

Dr Stefano Nava
Chief of the Respiratory Unit
Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri of Pavia, Italy

Stefano is a specialist in Respiratory Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine. He is the associate editor of Intensive Care Medicine and Breathe. He is also a previous member of the editorial board of Thorax. He reviews more than 10 international peer-reviewed journals. Stefano was elected chairman of the Intensive Care assembly at the European Respiratory Society. In the last 5 years, he was involved as a member of the Assembly (Critical Care) Program Committee at the ATS. He has published more than 120 papers on peer-reviewed journals. Major fields of interest include mechanical ventilation, weaning, respiratory muscle and ethics. In particular he has developed the use of non-invasive mechanical ventilation as a weaning technique.

Dr Saxon Ridley FRCA MD
Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care
Glan Clywd Hospital, UK

Dr Ridley qualified at the University of London, and attained his FRCA in 1985 and MD in 1995. He is currently Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at the Glan Clwyd Hospital, having moved after 15 years from being Director of the Critical Care Complex at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. Dr Ridley was the 21st President of the Intensive Care Society (2003-05), and Assistant Editor of Anaesthesia (1999-2005). He is currently Chair of the Intensive Care Foundation, Editor of the Critical Care Focus Series and Chair of the Intensive Care Society / Department of Health’s Working Group and Patient Flows. His main research interests are organisation, outcomes and economics of intensive care.

Dr Marcus J Schultz, MD PhD
Internist-Intensivist, Research Coordinator - Department of Intensive Care Medicine
Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam

Marcus is an assistant–professor of medicine and the director of research of the Department of Intensive Care Medicine of the Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He has published numerous articles in (inter–) national journals and numerous chapters in scientific books, has received several research awards/grants, and serves as a reviewer for peer–reviewed journals of intensive care medicine, amongst others. His main research interests are in the area of acute lung injury/pneumonia and mechanical ventilation, specifically (pre–)clinical studies on the interaction between inflammation/infection and haemostasis. His second interest involves implementation strategies of new therapies in daily intensive care practice.

Dr Peter E. Spronk, MD PhD FCCP
Intensivist
Apeldoorn, The Netherlands

Peter is working as an intensivist in the mixed medical-surgical ICU of the Gelre Hospitals (Lukas site) in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. He is director of research and an established clinical investigator in collaboration with the department of Intensive Care Medicine of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam. His main focus is on long term effects of critical illness such as critical illness polyneuromyopathy, delirium, and health related quality of life issues, and also on the microcirculatory response to disease and the implementation and evaluation of routine protocols and procedures in daily practice. He strives for further collaboration between ICU centers to facilitate clinical research and chairs a non-profit foundation called “HERMES Critical Care Group”.

Judy Verger
Paediatric Nurse Practitioner
University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing

Judy is a nurse practitioner in the Progressive Care Unit at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is also the Program Director for the Pediatric Critical Care Nurse Practitioner and the Neonatal Nurse Practitioner programs at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing. Judy is the editor of AACN’s Pediatric Procedure Manual for Acute and Critical Care, published this year. Her clinical research focus is nutrition in pediatric critical care, specifically for infants with congenital heart disease. Judy recently completed her term as the Chair of the AACN’s Certification Corporation, an organization that certifies more than 45,000 critical care nurses.

Invited speakers

Geoff Annals
Chief Executive
New Zealand Nurses Organisation

Geoff graduated as a Registered Comprehensive Nurse in 1982. Studied organisational psychology post registration at bachelors and masters level. Worked in a range of clinical positions at Waikato Hospital through to 1989 when he was appointed Director of Nursing. Moved from nursing management to general management positions in 1990. General Manager of Waikato Hospital 1997 – 2000 until his appointment as CEO of NZNO.

Christine Armstrong MN, PGCert (ICU)

Christine’s nursing career has predominantly been working in the cardiothoracic arena. Christine worked at Green Lane Cardiothoracic ICU prior to moving to Starship Children’s Hospital Paediatric ICU in 2003. Christine has held previous Clinical Charge Nurse positions in both the cardiothoracic intensive care and paediatric intensive care unit. Christine graduated Master of Nursing in 2005 from Massey University. Her areas of interest included processes involved with amalgamating two intensive care units. As part of a collaborative review of clinical practice post amalgamation, Christine has developed an interest in the correlation between the nursing theory - practice gap and its implications in the combined paediatric intensive care unit with a focus on the care of children with bronchiolitis.

Dr John Beca
Clinical Director
Starship Children’s Hospital, Auckland

Dr John Beca is Clinical Director of the PICU at Starship Children’s Hospital, Auckland and an intensivist in the Cardiovascular ICU at Auckland City Hospital. His research interest is in acute brain injury, especially injury related to cardiac surgery, trauma and hypoxic ischaemic injury. He is the principal investigator for the Hypothermia in TBI in Children (HiTBIC) study and on the steering committee for the Hypothermia for Cardiac Arrest in Paediatrics (HypCAP) international study. Other research projects are investigating the contribution of MRI, continuous EEG and NIRS in children with acute brain injury.

Dr Tony Burrell
Staff Specialist in Intensive Care
Nepean Hospital, Sydney

Tony trained as an anaesthetist and practiced in anaesthesia and intensive care in rural New South Wales, Australia for over twenty years. His main interest has been in critical care systems including the development of the rural critical care networks and the medical retrieval system. He has been Chair or member of a number of NSW/Ambulance Committees and was also involved in the preparation of a number of NSW Health policy documents including the Rural Critical Care Plan, Metropolitan Critical Care Plan and NSW Intensive Care Service Plan – Adult Services. He was appointed Medical Director of the NSW Adult Intensive Care Coordination and Monitoring Unit early in 2003. Lastly he is Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Safety and Quality Committee.

Dr Hamish Campbell
Senior Scientist
GNS Science

Dr Hamish Campbell is a Wellington based geologist and research scientist with GNS Science. He is also 'the geologist' at the National Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa. Born in Christchurch and raised in Dunedin, he was educated at Otago, Auckland and Cambridge universities and specialised in palaeontology. However, he is perhaps best known as a science communicator helping to promote and deliver geology to the public, especially through Te Papa where he is largely responsible for the 'Awesome Forces' exhibition. In 2005, he assisted Auckland Museum with development of the 'Volcanoes' exhibition.

Dr Beverley Copnell
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Royal Children's Hospital & Murdoch Childrens Research Institute

Bev has practised as a paediatric intensive care nurse for many years. She was awarded a PhD from RMIT University, Melbourne in 2004 and is now a fellow in neonatal respiratory research at the Royal Children’s Hospital and Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne. Her main research focus is on endotracheal suction. An active ACCCN member for many years, she is now the paediatric international liaison representative, in which capacity she serves on the Board of Directors of the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies (WFPICCS).

Liz Crowe
Social Worker
Mater Children’s Hospital, Brisbane

Liz Crowe graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work from James Cook University in 1992. Ms Crowe has worked in tertiary paediatric hospitals since 1995 specialising in grief, loss, trauma and crisis work with children and families. She has written several publications for the Qld government on loss, grief and trauma for children and parental bereavement. Ms Crowe also works in private practice doing conferences and workshops on these topics around Australia. Currently employed part time as a Social Worker in the Brisbane Mater Children’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Ms Crowe is at present doing a research Masters on “What is the experience for the Paediatric Intensivist on withholding or withdrawing life support to children with life limiting or futile conditions?”

Professor Donald Evans
Professor of Bioethics
Otago University

Donald taught at the University of Wales for twenty nine years. He developed the first European Masters degree programme in Medical Ethics, served as a member of the Governing Body of the Institute of Medical Ethics and has published numerous books and learned papers. He was elected a member of the Academy of Humanitarian Research, Moscow in 1996. He has conducted research projects for the UK Department of Health and led two European Commission international research projects. He has completed two research reports on health care systems in the Third World - one for the European Commission and the other for the World Health Organisation and further research reports for the Health funding Authority and the Health Research Council. He served as a member of the Independent Biotechnology Advisory Council, the HRC Ethics Committee and the National Ethics Advisory Committee. He is currently a member of the UNESCO International Ethics Committee and the UNESCO Commission on Ethics as well as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Stem Cell Oversight Committee. Professor Evans was appointed Director of the Bioethics Centre in the University of Otago in 1997.

Sandra Fielding, RGON, BN, MHSc (Critical Care Nursing)

Sandra is involved with critical care nursing education both within her role as clinical nurse educator for ICU and CCU at Tauranga Hospital and as a postgraduate nursing educator for Waikato Institute of Technology. Her areas of interest include the orientation and development of novice critical care nurses, along with supporting ongoing critical care education for the team. Currently she is involved in the introduction of an early identification of the physiologically unstable patient system within the Bay of Plenty hospitals – which she hopes will ultimately evolve into a critical care outreach service.

Professor Philippa Gander
Director, Sleep/Wake Research Centre
Massey University Wellington Campus

Philippa received her PhD from the University of Auckland in 1980. Following a Senior Fulbright Fellowship at Harvard Medical School (1980-1982), she joined the Fatigue Countermeasures Program at NASA, working primarily on the physiological and safety impact of shift work in aviation. In 1996, Philippa was awarded a Repatriation Fellowship by the Health Research Council and returned to establish the Sleep/Wake Research Centre, now at Massey University. One theme of the Centre’s research, lead by Dr Sandy Garden, focuses on ways to improve work organisation in hospitals to reduce staff fatigue and increase patient safety.

A/Prof Gavin D. Leslie RN IC Cert PhD BappSc Post Grad Dip (Clin Nurs) FRCNA
Associate Professor
Royal Perth Hospital

Gavin first qualified as a nurse with a hospital based diploma from Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. He subsequently worked in ICU and attained a post registration ICU certificate at RNSH in 1981. On completion of an undergraduate degree, Gavin took up the post of Nurse Educator Critical Care in late 1986. With the introduction of the WA career structure he was appointed Clinical Nurse Specialist in ICU. He completed his PhD in 1999. In September 2000 he was appointed editor of the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses publications. In 2005 he was awarded life membership of the ACCCN in recognition of his contribution to Australian critical care nursing. Gavin has over 100 publications and national/international conference presentations.

Professor Jeffrey Lipman MBBCh (Wits) , DA (S.A.), FFA (S.A.) FFA (CritCare) (S.A.), FJFICM, MD
Executive Director, Burns Trauma and Critical Care Research Centre
Director of the Department of Intensive Care, Royal Brisbane Hospital,
Professor of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, University of Queensland

Jeff received his medical degree from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa and has qualifications in anaesthesia and intensive care. He set up a number of Intensive Care Units in South Africa before moving to Australia in 1997. He has authored or co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed publications and 14 book chapters; he has been invited to present at many national and international conferences and is also a reviewer for 11 high quality international journals and granting committees, including the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. His research interests include all aspects of management in intensive care, resuscitation of burns and pharmacokinetics of antibiotic dosage in which he recently was granted his MD from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research into antibiotic usage in acute situations has received international recognition and he is regarded as an expert in field.

Dr Peter Thomas Morley MBBS, FRACP, FANZCA, FJFICM
Senior Specialist, Intensive Care Unit
Royal Melbourne Hospital

Peter completed Medical training in 1981 at University of Melbourne. Specialist training completed as Specialist Anaesthetist (1989), Specialist in Intensive Care (1989) and Consultant Physician (Jan 1991). Over 15 years of involvement in the evidence evaluation process: including for the National Medical Health & Research Council, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, and the Australian Resuscitation Council. Represented ANZICS on Australian Resuscitation Council (ARC) since 1990 (initially on Vic branch, then since 1997 as Federal ANZICS representative; currently Deputy Chair ARC, and Chair of Advanced Life Support Committee). Active involvement since 1998 in the development of the international evidence based guidelines (as ALS representative of the Australian Resuscitation Council on the International Liaison Committee On Resuscitation [ILCOR], and editorial board member). Recently appointed Evidence Evaluation Expert for ILCOR for 2010 science evaluation process.

Elaine McCall MN (Hons), BA (Nurs) RCompN, RSCN (UK)
Clinical Nurse Consultant
Starship Chidren’s Hospital, Auckland

Elaine’s nursing career has predominantly been in paediatric intensive care nursing in Edinburgh, London and Auckland. She was awarded the Master of Nursing (Honours) degree at Massey University, New Zealand and has completed a Post Graduate Certificate in Public Health (Effective Practice) at the University of Auckland. Among her areas of interest is the professional development of nursing staff and the implementation of evidence based best practice. Elaine is currently chairperson of the Auckland Regional Critical Care Nurses Section committee and is an Oceanic representative on the International Paediatric Intensive Care Nursing Association and an international editorial advisory board member for Paediatric Intensive Care Nursing.

Professor John Myburgh
Senior Consultant in the Department of Intensive Care Medicine
St George Hospital, Sydney
Associate Professor in the Facult of Medicine
University of New South Wales

He completed a PhD through the University of Adelaide on the systemic and neurophysiological effects of catecholamines in 2002. He has published widely on catecholamine pharmacology. He is a foundation member and current Chairman of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Clinical Trials Group (CTG). He is a member of the Board of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre and Director of the Division of Critical Care and Trauma at the George Institute for International Health and an honorary Associate Professor at the Monash Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine. In addition to clinical and research activities, he is an elected member of the Board of the Joint Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine. Within the JFICM, he is a final fellowship examiner, Treasurer and Research Officer.

Clare O’Donnell
Paediatric and Adult Congenital Cardiologist
Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Service, Auckland

Clare graduated from Otago University before completing her FRACP in Paediatrics. After embarking on paediatric cardiology subspecialist training at Green Lane Hospital, she travelled to Boston where she completed her Paediatric Cardiology Fellowship at the Boston Childrens Hospital. Her senior fellowship year and a further year post fellowship were spent with the Boston Adult Congenital Cardiac service. She returned to Auckland in 2003 to her current post wheresubspeciality interests include interventional catheterisation, adult congenital heart disease and pulmonary hypertension.

A/Prof Geoffrey Parkin

Assoc. Professor Geoffrey Parkin, an inaugural member of ANZICS, was Foundation Director of Intensive Care at Prince Henry’s Hospital and its successor, Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne. He was a member of the group that initiated the Australian Fellowship Examination in Intensive Care in its early years. This would later become the Joint Fellowship Examination. An enthusiastic lecturer in physiology, his passion is in mathematical modelling, measurement and control of physiological processes. Now in his 34^th year of Intensive Care, he brings the long perspective of the early Australasian intensivists. He has recently embarked upon a full time career in biomedical engineering.

Ron Paterson
Health and Disability Commissioner
New Zealand

Ron Paterson was appointed New Zealand Health and Disability Commissioner in 2000. He played a key role in the development of the New Zealand Code of Patients’ Rights in 1996. Ron has lectured and published on a wide range of topics in health law, ethics and policy, and been a leading voice in New Zealand debates on these issues over the past decade.

Shane Patman B.AppSc. (Physio); M.Sc; PhD
Senior lecturer, The University of Notre Dame Australia
Section Head (Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy) Fremantle Hospital, Western Australia.

Shane graduated from the University of Sydney in 1990, and completed both his Master’s & PhD through Curtin University whilst working as the senior physiotherapist in ICU at Royal Perth Hospital. In 2005 he commenced a co-appointment post at UNDA & Fremantle Hospital. His recent research activities have examined the role of physiotherapy in acute exacerbations of COPD, effects of physiotherapy on VAP in those with ABI, evidence based curriculum content with cardiorespiratory physiotherapy education, changes in muscle length and stiffness during ICU admission, incidence of adverse physiological changes in ICU associated with physiotherapy, the use of NIV in the acute tetraplegics, and assisting with an investigation of airway management of patients with acute quadriplegia from spinal cord injury. Shane is the immediate past Chairperson of Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy Australia, on the National Advisory Council of the Australian Physiotherapy Association, and a member of the Accreditation Committee of the Australian Physiotherapy Council.

Robert Patton

Robert is a Registered nurse whose nursing career includes ICU, general surgical and stomal therapy experience and nursing education. For the last 15 years he has been involved in risk and emergency management within the health sector and more recently working with humanitarian agencies in under-developed countries. Over the last few years he has responded to major disasters in Asia such as the Gujarat earthquake, Indian Ocean tsunami, Yogyakarta earthquake and the Mt. Merapi volcanic eruption. He has a Master of Philosophy and in 2001 was awarded a QSM in recognition of his community service. He is married with two adult children.

Alison Pirret
Nurse Practitioner Intensive and High Dependency Care of Adults
Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Middlemore Hospital, Counties Manukau District Health Board

Alison is the first New Zealand Nurse Practitioner in the area of intensive care nursing. Her current role includes implementing a Nurse Practitioner led ICU outreach service. Alison is involved in nursing education, and has lectured extensively throughout New Zealand. Alison is a member of the national Critical Care Nurses’ Section and has active involvement in national policy and standards development. Alison has presented at many national and international conferences and has published on topics related to intensive/high dependency and acute care nursing. Alison is a member of the international advisory board for “Intensive and Critical Care Nursing.”

Dr Amanda Rischbeith Ph.D MNSc Grad Dip (Intens Care) RN

Amanda has over 25 years critical care experience in clinical, education, senior management, and research roles in South Australia and United Kingdom. She played an integral role in commissioning the intensive care unit at Wakefield Hospital in 1993 and remained the ICU Clinical Manager for 10 years. She completed her Ph.D in 2006 on a 3 year APA scholarship: the first national study of nurse skill matching to patient acuity and risk in intensive care. Current portfolios include: Clinical Educator Calvary Wakefield Intensive Care Unit; Research and Ethics Committee Chair; Vice-President Board of Directors, National Health Foundation (SA); President of the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses (SA); and Director, Middleton Consulting. Amanda’s interests and publications relate to health workforce and risk, business and research ethics and governance, and intensive care research. She is a Governor’s Leadership Fellow (2004), a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has a clinical title with the University of Adelaide.

A/Prof Andreas Schibler
Staff Specialist
Mater Children’s Hospital

Andreas is a paediatric intensivist with research interest in mechanical ventilation and the measurement of optimal ventilation distribution in lung disease. Graduated from medical school in Switzerland, he trained in paediatric, paediatric pulmonology and paediatric intensive care in several cities in Europe, USA and Australia. He holds currently a staff specialist position at the Mater Children’s Hospital, Brisbane. Current research projects focus on the measurement of ventilation distribution in an animal model using a smoke injury for acute lung injury and investigating new recruitment manoeuvres in ARDS.

Dr Lara Shekerdemian
Consultant
Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne

Lara is a consultant in Paediatric Intensive Care at The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne. She trained in paediatric intensive care and cardiology at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, and in Paediatric Intensive Care in Toronto, and Great Ormond Street, London. Lara was a consultant in cardiac ICU at Great Ormond Street prior to coming to Melbourne in 2001. Her research interests are pulmonary hypertension, cardiovascular pharmacology, and brain injury after infant cardiac surgery.

Professor Jamie Sleigh
Professor of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care
Waikato Clinical School, University of Auckland

Jamie Sleigh is Professor of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care at the Waikato Clinical School of the University of Auckland, Hamilton, New Zealand. He grew up in Zimbabwe, and specialised in anaesthesia in the United Kingdom, before moving to New Zealand in 1988. His current research interests include: EEG and anaesthesia, the modelling of brain dynamics, and the molecular diagnosis of infection and the septic response.

Dr Stephen Streat
Intensivist
Auckland City Hospital

Stephen Streat is an Intensivist in the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Auckland City Hospital, Clinical Director of Organ Donation New Zealand and Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, University of Auckland. His clinical and research interests are in neurointensive care, trauma, sepsis, transplantation, nutrition and metabolism, end-of-life care and organ donation. Outside of work his interests include family life, fishing, paleoanthropology, gonzo journalism, physics, music, the history of science, information technology, communication, cosmology, futurology and politics.

Dr Dianne Stephens
Director of Intensive Care
Royal Darwin Hospital

Dianne is the Director of Intensive Care at Royal Darwin Hospital. She completed her anaesthetic and intensive care training in 1997 and moved to Darwin in 1998 as the first Intensive Care Specialist in the Northern Territory. She established the NT organ donation agency in 2001. She received a Medal of The Order of Australia (OAM) for her role in the management of the critically ill Bali bombing victims in 2002 and worked for 3 months in Iraq in 2005. Her main interests are in the critical care management of disasters, trauma and sepsis. The local research program is directed to improving outcomes through new understanding and treatments for severe sepsis including melioidosis.

Phyllis Tangitu
General Manager Maori Health
Lakes District Health Board

Phyllis hails from the iwi of Te Arawa, Mataatua and Takitimu Whaka, and lives with her whanau in Rotorua. Her background is in education and has worked in the mental health and Maori Mental health sector for the past 17 years. Phyllis provides leadership, overall management of Maori Health and supports and gives direction to Lakes DHB board and Executive on Maori Health development. A key role for Phyllis is to ensure Lakes DHB Iwi, Te Arawa and Ngati Tuwharetoa participate in the activities of the board, particularly, strategic and annual planning, and more important to ensure that iwi issues and needs are identified and the board is informed of these issues. Phyllis also sits on a number of advisory groups and committees including the Mental Health Commission Maori health Advisory committee and is a Community member on the Mental Health Review Tribunal for NZ.

Dr Frank M.P. van Haren, MD FJFICM
Intensive Care Physician, Waikato Hospital, Hamilton
Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, Waikato Clinical School, University of Auckland

Frank completed his specialist training as both Physician and Intensive Care Specialist in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Before moving to New Zealand in 2005, he worked as an Intensive Care Specialist in large teaching hospitals and lectured for the Dutch National ICM training programme. Other teaching activities included ATLS, APLS, and FCCS, as well as numerous invited presentations for scientific meetings. He has published on a wide range of topics, and is reviewer for several journals. His research includes a current PhD project on gastrointestinal perfusion and microcirculation in sepsis. Other research interests include the effects of hypertonic fluid resuscitation in sepsis, immunomodulation in sepsis, nutritional therapy, and non-conventional inotropes and vasopressors.

Dr Richard A. Warwick
International Global Change Institute (IGCI)

While a member of the International Global Change Institute (IGCI) at the University of Waikato, Dr Warrick has pursued his long-term professional interest in climate variability and change and their impacts on bio-physical and human systems. He has been a Lead Author in all three of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports, in 1990, 1995 and 2001, as well as the upcoming fourth Assessment Report. Dr Warrick has spear-headed innovative developments in integrated assessment modelling as a way of linking models and data on climate change and its impacts for purposes of decision making. This work includes the CLIMPACTS model for New Zealand and other model systems that built on this modelling concept, including the SimCLIM Open-Framework modelling system which can be developed and applied at different scales, from global to local.

Dr Steven Webb
Senior Lecturer in Intensive Care
University of Western Australia

Dr Webb is a Senior Lecturer in Intensive Care Medicine at the University of Western Australia and has clinical appointments as a staff specialist in intensive care at Royal Perth Hospital, Joondalup Health Campus, Mount Hospital, and St John of God Hospital, Subiaco. His primary degree was from the University of Western Australia, graduating in 1988. He subsequently trained as an intensive care physician gaining his FRACP in 1995. He has a PhD from Imperial College which involved investigation of mechanisms of virulence in Neisseria meningitidis. He also has a Masters of Public Health from the University of Western Australia majoring in epidemiology and biostatistics.

Ms Sharron Webster
Team Leader
Bereavement Care Service, Middlemore Hospital

Sharron has worked in the health sector, both public and community, since 1970. She trained as a nurse at the Home of Compassion and St. Helen’s Hospitals in Wellington. After 10 years of nursing she started working in the community. She worked as a field officer with Multiple Sclerosis, residential social worker for socially and emotionally disturbed adolescents, resident alcohol and drug counselor, social worker for people with kidney failure, hospital manager for an aged residential facility, and in her current role. Sharron has completed counseling training with Tauranga Help in sexual abuse and community/social work papers and further counseling papers at Bay of Plenty Polytec and Carrington (now UNITEC). She has also completed an Elizabeth Kubler-Ross 5 day workshop on death and dying. She is currently completing a Diploma in Trauma Management with Wellington Tec.

A/Prof Jennifer Weller MD, MClinEd, MBBS, FANZCA, FRCA
Director, Faculty Education Unit, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences University of Auckland
Specialist Anaesthetist, Auckland City Hospital.

Jenny’s involvement in medical education and simulation began in Wellington in 1997 when she joined the team at the National Patient Simulation Centre, and this interest resulted in a Masters in Clinical Education, an MD and a role as Director of a Unit committed to educational research and promotion of excellence in teaching across the Faculty of Medical and Health Science. In her doctoral thesis she evaluated the effectiveness of patient simulation in medical education and assessment with a particular focus on management of medical emergencies. Her current research interests include using high fidelity simulators to study medical error, evaluation of simulation as a teaching modality for intensive care teams, interventions to improve bedside teaching, and clinical workplace assessment.

Dr Sue Wilson
Child and adolescent psychiatrist
Mater Children’s Hospital

Dr Wilson is a child and adolescent psychiatrist based at the Mater Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, Australia. She has worked in the consultation-liaison team within the Mater Child and Youth Mental Health Service since 1999. The C-L team provides mental health services to children, adolescents and their families in the hospital setting, and offers a range of supports to staff and teams including liaison and education. Dr Wilson attends a weekly multidisciplinary case conference within PICU and provides supervision to the social workers on the team. She also facilitates a monthly group for nursing staff.