Think Big
Professor Andrea Kurz is the Chair of the Department of General Anesthesiology in the Anesthesiology Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. She graduated from the University of Vienna (Austria), where she also completed her residency in Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine. Subsequently, she was Director of Clinical Research at Washington University in St Louis and, Chair of the Anesthesia Department at the University of Bern, Switzerland before she moved to Cleveland. She has conducted clinical research for the past 25 years and published more than 180 papers. A significant number of her publications were in high-ranked multi specialty journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet.
At the beginning of her career, her major research foci were the pathophysiology and consequences of perioperative hypothermia as well as perioperative temperature management. Because of her work she is recognised as one of the world’s experts on that topic. Her contributions to our understanding of perioperative temperature control has changed clinical care in regards to temperature management.
During the past two decades her major research focus is perioperative interventions to improve intermediate and long-term outcome after surgery. Perioperative interventions include fluid and blood management, different types of anesthesia, opioid sparing anesthetic techniques, supplemental oxygen administration etc. Outcomes include postoperative wound infections, cancer recurrence, postoperative cognitive function and overall postoperative recovery during months and years after surgery. Her main goal is to provide evidence for evidence-based perioperative medicine.
Christopher Eccleston is Professor of Psychology at the University of Bath where he directs the Centre for Pain Research. Chris is particularly interested in the psychological mechanisms of analgesia, adjustment to persistent pain, the development of novel treatments, paediatric chronic pain management, and evidence based pain medicine. He established and ran the Bath Pain Management Unit until 2009 when he moved to the University of Bath to establish the Centre for Pain Research. He is passionate about communicating science and finding ways to encourage young scientists into a successful career in pain research. In 2016 he published his psychology of physical sensations, called “embodied” (OUP Press) which sets an agenda for a comprehensive psychology of the body.
Michael G. Irwin, MB ChB, MD, FRCA, FCAI, FANZCA, FHKAM, is professor and head of the Department of Anaesthesiology, University of Hong Kong, Chief of Service in Anaesthesia at Queen Mary Hospital and at HKU Shenzhen Hospital, China. President of the Society of Anaesthetists of Hong Kong and Past President of the Hong Kong College of Anaesthesiology, where he is also a member of the education and examination committees. Professor Irwin has published 200 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and is a regular invited journal reviewer. He is an editor of Anaesthesia, and is chairman of the organising committee for the World Congress of Anaesthesia 2016. Research interests include intravenous anaesthesia, pharmacology, acute pain management and organ preconditioning.
Tim Cook is a consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine, Royal United Hospital, Bath Director of National Audit Projects and College advisor on Airway.
He has led two Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) National Audit Projects (NAP3 on epidurals/spinal anaesthesia and NAP4 on airway management) shining a light on major aspects of anaesthetic practice and changing practice. He is now the director of the national audit projects and has played a full role in NAP5 studying accidental awareness during general anaesthesia – which he describes as “undoubtedly the most ‘patient facing’ of all NAPs to date” – and the current NAP, NAP6 studying peri-operative anaphylaxis.
He has an overall interest in safety and quality improvement in anaesthesia and intensive care using a bottom up approach. He was awarded the Difficult Airway Society Professorship 2014, the RCoA Macintosh Professorship (2012-13) and has also received the RCoA Humphrey Davy Medal and the Henry Featherstone Certificate by the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland.
Dr Suellen Walker, MBBS MMed MSc PhD FANZCA FFPMANZCA, is currently reader and consultant in paediatric anaesthesia and pain medicine at the UCL Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond St Hospital, London, UK.
Suellen previously held consultant posts in paediatric anaesthesia and pain medicine at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne and Royal North Shore Hospital and Children’s Hospital at Westmead in Sydney. She completed a masters in pain management at the University of Sydney and was a foundation Fellow of the Faculty of Pain Medicine, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists in 1999.
Suellen moved to London in 2000 to pursue developmental pain research, completing an MSc in neuroscience at UCL, followed by a PhD. Her current post encompasses clinical practice in paediatric anaesthesia and pain medicine, and clinical and translational laboratory research related to the developmental neurobiology of pain, developmental pharmacodynamics of analgesics, and long-term effects of neonatal pain. Suellen was an editor and contributor to the Oxford Textbook of Paediatric Pain, the 2nd and 3rd editions of Acute Pain Medicine: Scientific Evidence, and the Association of Paediatric Anaesthetists’ Good Practice in Postoperative and Procedural Pain. Her research was acknowledged by the Macintosh Professorship, Royal College of Anaesthetists UK in 2012/13.
Lorelei Lingard is an internationally recognised researcher in the study of communication and collaboration on healthcare teams. She has a PhD in Rhetoric (1998) from Simon Fraser University. She is a tenured professor in the Department of Medicine and the director of the Centre for Education Research & Innovation at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, at Western University. For almost 20 years, Dr Lingard has studied the communication practices of clinical teams in order to support evidence-based educational initiatives to promote areas of strength and address areas of need. Her work on collective competence has shaped the way health professionals are trained and assessed, and her research on interprofessional communication routines has influenced global initiatives to improve teamwork for improved patient safety. In 2014, she was appointed a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, in recognition of the impact of her work.
Andrew is a cardiothoracic anaesthetist at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge. He is the editor-in-chief of Anaesthesia, and is on the board and council of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI), the member organisation for more than 11,000 anaesthetists. He is an examiner at the Royal College of Anaesthetists for the Final FRCA, and sits on the board and council of the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia (NIAA). He has edited two books on transplantation and cardiothoracic critical care, and is a Fellow of Murray Edwards College (tutoring medical students in pharmacology) and the University of Cambridge. His main research area is pre-operative anaemia and the effects of iron replacement therapy, and minimally invasive approaches to cardiothoracic surgery and enhanced/fast-track recovery.
He has edited two books on transplantation and cardiothoracic critical care, and is a Fellow of Murray Edwards College (tutoring medical students in pharmacology) and the University of Cambridge. His main research area is pre-operative anaemia and the effects of iron replacement therapy, and minimally invasive approaches to cardiothoracic surgery and enhanced/fast-track recovery.
He is also a life-long and long-suffering West Ham football supporter and a fully signed-up member of the Barmy Army supporting the England cricket team.
Ellen is a consultant at St James Hospital Dublin, Ireland and specialises in airway management. She has been involved in the Difficult Airway Society (DAS) since its foundation and was elected President of DAS in November 2009. In 2016 she was appointed the Difficult Airway Society Professor of Anaesthesia and Airway Management. Ellen was elected to the Council of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI) in 2001 and has held many posts including Vice-President. She received the John Snow Silver Medal for her contributions to the AAGBI.
She is the immediate past president of the College of Anaesthetists of Ireland having held numerous posts including chair of education and chair of examinations. Ellen led a team to deliver oximeters to every anaesthesia provider in Malawi. In addition she was instrumental in delivering a six year training program in Malawi which involved funding courses and training MMEDS in anaesthesia.
Carin performed her anesthesiology residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and then went right into academics at UTHealth Medical School, where she worked for 24 years, serving her last nine years there as chair of the department of anesthesiology prior to joining MD Anderson. She is a previous president and is in her second term as executive director of the Society for Airway Management. She received the Distinguished Service Award in 2012 and is a member of many other national societies, including being a founding member of the Trauma Anesthesiology Society. She is well published in the area of airway management with more than 75 peer reviewed articles, almost 50 book chapters and 20 letters to the editor. She serves as the editor of many books, including the six books that she has published. She is currently working on the fourth edition of the international textbook on airway management, Hagberg and Benumof’s Airway Management.
Quentin Bryce has enjoyed a rich and distinguished career as an academic, lawyer, community and human rights advocate, senior public officer, university college principal, and vice-regal representative in Queensland and for Australia.
Across life Ms Bryce has been involved in a wide range of government and non- government organisations; the National Women’s Advisory Council, the National Breast Cancer Advisory Council, President of Women’s Cricket Australia and the Australian Children’s Television Foundation. On September 5, 2008, Ms Bryce was sworn in as Australia’s 25th governor-general. As the first woman to take up the office, she was a pioneer in contemporary Australian society, and yet one who brought more than 40 years of experience in reform, community building and leadership to the role. Most recently she has chaired the Special Taskforce on Domestic and Family Violence. The taskforce’s report and recommendations were handed to the Queensland premier on February 28, 2015.
Ian is a clinician scientist and trained as a clinical immunologist in Scotland. As a professor at the University of Queensland, he leads a research group working at the Translational Research Institute in Brisbane on the immunobiology of epithelial cancers.
He is recognised as co-inventor of the technology enabling the HPV vaccines, currently used worldwide to help prevent cervical cancer. He heads a biotechnology company Admedus Vaccines, working on new vaccine technologies and is a board member of several companies and not for profit organisations. He is the current president of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and a member of the Commonwealth Science Council. Most recently he was appointed chair of the federal government’s Medical Research Future Fund.
He was Australian of the Year in 2006. He was recipient of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science and of the Balzan Prize, in 2008, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2012.
He was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2013.
