Keynote and plenary speakers

Ramani is Professor of Perioperative Medicine, Head of the Centre of Perioperative Medicine and Head of the Department of Targeted Intervention within the Division of Surgery and Interventional Science at UCL. She is a Consultant Anaesthetist at UCL Hospitals, where she was previously also a consultant in critical care medicine (2009-2018). Nationally she leads the Health Services Research Centre at the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia (NIAA) at the Royal College of Anaesthetists. Ramani was a council member of the Royal College of Anaesthetists between 2008 and 2012 and now contributes to NHS leadership in her role as Associate National Clinical Director for Elective Care at NHS England.

Ramani’s academic interest is health services and improvement research in perioperative medicine, in particular, risk stratification and outcome measurement, and the evaluation of interventions aimed at improving the quality of care for patients undergoing major surgery. She has led a number of national or international “citizen science” research programs including the first and second Sprint National Anaesthesia Projects and the Perioperative Quality Improvement Programme (www.pqip.org.uk), and she is a member of the National Emergency Laparotomy Audit project team.

Ramani is married to (the very patient) Ed, an inventor, and has two (very active) adopted sons, Zack (4) and James (3). She lives in the Sussex countryside surrounded by sheep.

Bart Morlion trained as an anaesthesiologist but has worked for many years full-time in pain medicine. He is the director of the Leuven Centre for Algology & Pain Management at the University Hospitals of Leuven and clinical professor at the University of Leuven, where he teaches pain management, pharmacology and evidence based medicine at the medical school.

He is the current president of the European Pain Federation EFIC and past-president of the Belgian Pain Society (2006-2012). He is program director of the Belgian Interuniversity Postgraduate Studies in Algology and is also an active member of several committees in international scientific societies. Bart Morlion is currently deputy editor of the European Journal of Pain and author of numerous publications on the management of pain. His professional interests include all aspects of multimodal chronic pain management, cancer pain management, pharmacotherapy of pain, and quality management.

Solomon Aronson is Executive Vice Chairman in the Department of Anesthesiology and a tenured professor at Duke University in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Population Health Science. He is an adjunct honorary professor at the University College London.

He earned his BS in molecular biology with distinction at the University of Wisconsin and his MD with honors in research at the Medical College of Wisconsin. After completing an anesthesiology residency including a year as chief resident at the University of Texas Medical Galveston, he completed a fellowship in cardiac and vascular anesthesia at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston. Thereafter, he was recruited to the University of Chicago where he ascended to the rank of full professor and served as chief of the cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesia division. In 2006 he was recruited to Duke and in 2011, Dr Aronson received his MBA with a concentration in Health Sector Management at Duke University Fuqua School of Business.

Having written more than 300 manuscripts, book chapters, and abstracts as well as six textbooks, he is recognised as an expert on topics concerning perioperative echocardiography and perioperative blood pressure risk, perioperative medicine and population health and health economics. He has lectured nationally and internationally.

Dr Aronson has been repeatedly listed in Best Doctors in America. He continues to serve on the FDA as a consultant after served on the Anesthesia and Life Support Advisory Committee and Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee. In 2017, University College London awarded a professor appointment. In 2019, he was honored by the American Society of Echocardiography with a lifetime achievement award.

Dr Aronson serves on the board of directors as director of business development for the Physicians Diagnostic Clinic (PDC) at Duke. He has served on the board of directors and was president of the intraoperative council for the American Society of Echocardiography, served on the board of directors and was president for the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiology, was a founding trustee member of the National Board of Echocardiography and served on their board.

Dr Aronson is married to Dr Leena Sharma and they have two children, twins who both graduated from college. In addition to enjoying time with his family, he works at his tennis and golf games, listens to music, pursues drawing and painting interests and enjoys travelling and serving his community. He serves on the board of directors for the Greater Durham Boys and Girls Club of America.

Dr Justin Skowno is a full-time clinician-researcher at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead in Sydney. He is a senior staff specialist at the hospital and a clinical senior lecturer with the University of Sydney. His research interests include cerebral monitoring using optical, electrical and other modalities, the neurodevelopmental impacts of anaesthesia and the developing area of data science in anaesthesia, and he is currently the Chairperson of the Scientific Committee for the Society for Paediatric Anaesthesia in New Zealand and Australia (SPANZA). Dr Skowno is a member of the editorial board of the journal Pediatric Anesthesia and is a peer reviewer for Anesthesiology and other leading speciality journals. As a clinician, his focus is on paediatric cardiac anaesthesia, onco-anaesthesia, and anaesthesia for neonates and infants, and he manages the TIVA service at the hospital, as well as being the research lead for the department.

At various times he has been a MAMIL cyclist, climber, trail-runner and touch footy player, and still dabbles in these while trying to keep up with his wife, Emily, and three children.

Claudia Sommer is a Professor of Neurology at the University of Würzburg, Germany, with a focus on peripheral neurology and pain. She received training in neurology, psychiatry, neuropathology, and experimental anaesthesia. At the University of Würzburg, she serves as a consultant in neurology, organises outpatient clinics for patients with peripheral neuropathies, headache and pain, and leads the Northern Bavarian Neuromuscular Centre and the Peripheral Nerve Laboratory. Research interests are the fibromyalgia syndrome, the pathophysiology of antibody-mediated diseases, and the role of inflammation in the pathophysiology of neuropathic pain. She has written more than 250 original research papers and more than 100 reviews and book-chapters and edited several books. She is active in the development of national and international guidelines on diagnosis and treatment of peripheral neuropathies, and on neuropathic pain. She is a reviewer for scientific journals, the German Research Foundation (DFG) and serves on the editorial boards of several scientific journals. She is a longstanding member of the Peripheral Nerve Society (PNS) and a Board Member of the Inflammatory Neuropathy Consortium (INC), as well as Chair of the Teaching Course Subcommittee of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN). As of January 2019, she is president of the German Pain Society and president-elect of the International Society for the Study of Pain.

Proudly South African, Ross was born and educated at the continent’s tip in Cape Town. His professional fields of interest have centred upon acute and critical care, trauma, anaesthesia, aeromedical, emergency, wilderness and expedition medicine. He has worked extensively as an expedition doctor, including serving as overwintering expedition leader and doctor for the South African National Antarctic Expedition, and is co-founder and medical director of WildMedix, South Africa’s first company to offer accredited training in wilderness medicine. After shifting his predominant focus to anaesthesiology and perioperative medicine, he spearheaded the development of the first African Fellowship in Airway and Thoracic Anaesthesia and is now Associate Professor and Airway Lead for the Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at the University of Cape Town. Ross’s clinical and research interests include all facets of airway management, aeromedical and prehospital care, remote and expedition medicine, point-of-care investigation, thermoregulation and extreme physiology. He has secured research and educational grant funding from the South African Society of Anaesthesiologists, Wilderness Medical Society, University of Cape Town, and medical industry. Ross is a keen course director, instructor, dynamic international speaker, and #FOAM (free, open-access medical education) enthusiast, with more than 30 publications. When not providing care in the hospital or abroad, Ross is usually to be found with his family in the wilds, committing random acts of aviation and/or adventure.

Professor Kate Leslie AO FAHMS is head of research in the Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Management, Royal Melbourne Hospital, and honorary professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne and Monash University, Australia.

Simone is a Program Lead at the George Institute for Global Health. Her areas of expertise include behavioural psychology, health promotion, health policy, and intervention research. Her work focuses on disease prevention research in the areas of obesity, nutrition, physical activity, alcohol consumption, tobacco use, and mental health. Specific groups of interest include those experiencing disadvantage, children, and the elderly.

Professor Kirsty Forrest is Dean of Medicine at Bond University and Treasurer of the Executive Committee of Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand (MDANZ). Kirsty is a Consultant Anaesthetist at Gold Coast University Hospital and a fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA). She is also a member of the Education, Development and Evaluation Committee and a lead facilitator for the educator program of ANZCA. Her research focus is medical education and she is co-author and editor of several best-selling medical textbooks including Understanding Medical Education: Evidence, Theory and Practice and Healthcare Simulation at a Glance. Professor Forrest is also Chair of the Medical Education Collaboration Committee (MECC) of MDANZ. Prior to joining Bond as Dean of Medicine, Professor Forrest was Associate Dean, Learning and Teaching, and Professor of Health and Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University.

Professor Michael Reade AM is an anaesthetist aand intensivist in the Australian Defence Force, seconded to the University of Queensland to lead military trauma research. With the rank of Brigadier, he is the Assistant Surgeon General – Army, responsible for specialist health personnel and capability development. His research interests are coaguloapthy in trauma, trials of cryopreserved platelets and tranexamic acid, trauma systems design and delirium. He has secured more than $A22 million in research grants and has published more than 150 papers.

Dr Megan Reitz, MA, MSc, MRes, PhD is Professor of Leadership and Dialogue at Hult International Business School where she speaks, researches, consults and supervises on the intersection of leadership, change, dialogue and mindfulness. She is on the Thinkers50 radar of global business thinkers and is ranked in HR Magazine’s “most influential thinkers listing”. She has presented her research to audiences throughout the world and is the author of Dialogue in Organizations and Mind Time. Her new book, with Financial Times Publishing, is called Speak Up.

Her passion and curiosity centres around the quality of how we meet, see, hear, speak, learn with and encounter one another in organisational systems. Her research and publications, featured in Harvard Business Review and Forbes magazine, explore the neuroscience of leadership, the links between mindfulness and leadership capacities for the 21st century and the capacity to “speak truth to power” and enable others to do the same.

Before joining Ashridge, Dr Reitz was a consultant with Deloitte, surfed the dot-com boom with boo.com, and worked in strategy consulting for The Kalchas Group – now the strategic arm of Computer Science Corporation. She was educated at Cambridge University and has a PhD from Cranfield School of Management. She is an accredited executive coach with Ashridge and The School of Coaching.

She is mother to two wonderful daughters who test her regularly on her powers of mindfulness and dialogue.

Dr Richard “Harry” Harris works in anaesthesia and aeromedical retrieval medicine in Adelaide, South Australia.

He has expertise in diving, wilderness and remote area health. His passion for cave diving goes back to the 1980’s and has taken him to the corners of the globe in search of new adventures.

Harry and his colleagues have explored the Pearse Resurgence in New Zealand to 229m depth, Daxing Spring in China to 213m and Song Hong Cave in Thailand to 196m to name a few.

He is an enthusiastic but inferior UW photographer and videographer who is resigned to capturing opportunistic images via helmet cams.

Harry has a professional and voluntary interest in search and rescue operations, establishing the first sump rescue training course in Australasia. By building relationships with emergency services locally he has been preparing for such an event. The 2018 Thailand cave rescue was an opportunity to put this training to work.

In 2018 he received the Star of Courage, Australia’s second highest civilian award for bravery, and the medal of the Order of Australia for his role in the Thailand cave rescue.

Harry is the 2019 Australian of the Year for South Australia and the joint 2019 Australian of the Year with his dive partner Craig Challen.

Andrew Klein is a Cardiothoracic Anaesthetist at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge. He is the editor-in-chief of Anaesthesia, which has an impact factor of 5.4 and is very active on social media. He is on the board and council of the Association of Anaesthetists, the membership organisation for >11,000 anaesthetists in Great Britain and Ireland. He also sits on the board and council of the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia (NIAA), which manages research grant funding in the UK. He is also a member of the research committee for the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA).

Andrew’s main research area is pre-operative anaemia and the effects of iron replacement therapy. He is one of the principal investigators of the ITACS trial (Intravenous Iron for the Treatment of Anaemia before Cardiac Surgery). He has recently chaired two working parties updating the UK national Guidelines for Cell Salvage and for the Management of Jehovah’s Witnesses patients undergoing surgery. He is also currently researching new point-of-care testing technology for managing haemorrhage during surgery and high-flow nasal oxygen to improve recovery after major surgery, including thoracotomy, emergency laparotomy and sternotomy.

Andrew is a keen cricket supporter and member of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) at Lord’s in London, and a lifelong and long-suffering West Ham United season ticket holder.

Professor Michel MRF Struys leads the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Groningen and the University Medical Center Groningen in Groningen, Netherlands. He is also a professor at Ghent University in Belgium. Aside from being a board-certified anesthesiologist in both The Netherlands and Belgium, he is a board-certified clinical pharmacologist in the Netherlands. His main research interests are clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics and drug administration technology, including intravenous and inhaled anesthetics, new drugs, target controlled infusion techniques, closed-loop and drug interaction behavior. Professor Struys is an editorial board member and director for the British Journal of Anaesthesia, associated editor of Anesthesiology and a guest editor for Anesthesia & Analgesia. He is also the chair of the ESA committee on pharmacology. He has authored various publications and books and is a member of several national and international scientific organisations.

Dr Calatzis, MD, has more than 20 years of experience encompassing clinical, scientific and research and development of in vitro diagnostic methods. Starting his career at the Department of Transfusion Medicine and Hemostaseology, University of Munich, Munich, Germany.

Coinventor of two widely used IVD devices: ROTEM coagulation analyser and multiplate platelet function analyser, Dr Calatzis has changed medical practices in their respective fields.

With the previous developments ROTEM and Multiplate he has had the pleasure to contribute to two in vitro diagnostic systems that changed medical practices in their respective fields. He is author and co-author of more than 100 publications.

Throughout his career he has enjoyed collaborating with great people and developing great products. His newest achievement is the ClotPro, taking the functional analysis of blood coagulation to the next level.

Dr Aryeh Shander, MD, FCCM, FCCP, FASA is Emeritus Chair, Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care Medicine, Pain Management and Hyperbaric Medicine at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood, New Jersey, US. He is also Adjunct Clinical Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Medicine and Surgery at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, as well as Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He is the Executive Medical Director of The Institute for Patient Blood Management and Bloodless Medicine and Surgery at Englewood Hospital, and Past President of the Society for the Advancement of Blood Management. Dr Shander also serves as the Clinical Research Director for TEAMHealth Anesthesia.

Dr Shander lectures nationally and internationally on a variety of topics related to anesthesiology, critical care medicine, and patient blood management and his publications have appeared in several prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals.