Emery N. Brown, M.D., Ph.D. is the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and Computational Neuroscience at MIT; the Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School; and an anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He received his B.A. in Applied Mathematics (magna cum laude) from Harvard College, his M.A. and Ph.D. in statistics from Harvard University and his M.D. (magna cum laude) from Harvard Medical School. Professor Brown completed his internship in internal medicine and a research fellowship in endocrinology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his anesthesiology residency at MGH. He has been a member of the faculty member at Harvard Medical School since 1992 and at MIT since 2005. Professor Brown is an anesthesiologist-statistician whose research is defining the neuroscience of how anesthetics produce the states of general anesthesia. He also develops signal processing algorithms and statistical methods for neuroscience data analysis.
Dr. Frances Chung is a Professor of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at University Health Network, University of Toronto. She is the ResMed Chair in Anesthesiology, Sleep, and Perioperative Medicine Research at University Health Network. She is a co-founder and past president of the Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine and a Past President for the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia. Her research interests are in several areas: sleep apnea, cognition, perioperative medicine, patient safety, monitoring, pain, nausea and vomiting, and ambulatory anesthesia. In 2022, Research.com awarded her “Best Female Scientist Award". She is ranked best 1000 female scientist in the world (top 820), and she is the top 25 female scientist in Canada Her Discipline h-index is 102. https://research.com/u/frances-chung In total, she has 387 publications with over 37000 citations. Her research work has been recognized through multiple awards including the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada’s McLaughlin-Gallie Visiting Professorship; the Research Recognition Award from the Canadian Anesthesiologist’s Society; Research Award from the Department of Anesthesia, University of Toronto; Fellow Teaching Award, University Health Network, and the Distinguished Services Award from the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia. To celebrate 2017 World Anesthesia Day, her work "High STOP-Bang score indicates a high probability of obstructive sleep apnea" was chosen to be the Top 25 Most Important Articles in the history of British Anesthesia Journal. Dr. Chung served on three editorial boards: Anesthesia Analgesia, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, and PLoS One.
Associate Professor Jai Darvall is an anaesthetist and intensive care specialist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, co-lead of the perioperative medicine service within the Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Management, and a senior lecturer in critical care education at the University of Melbourne. His PhD investigated the implications of frailty in perioperative and critical care; this research program with the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society now comprises the largest dataset of ICU frailty worldwide (> 250,000 patients). Jai has published over 60 peer reviewed articles, and is Chief Investigator of the ANZCA Clinical Trials Network endorsed Chewy Trial, a multi-centre, international randomised control trial evaluating a novel therapy for postoperative nausea and vomiting. Jai has clinical interests in perioperative medicine, anaesthesia for older patients, and critical care echocardiography. He received an ANZCA Foundation scholarship to assist his PhD, and has received several other grants through the foundation supporting studies within his research program.
Dr Craig Ellis is a Specialist Pre-Hospital and Emergency Physician based in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. He splits his time between working as a Deputy Clinical Director for Hato Hone St John and as a Specialist in the Emergency Department of the Hawkes Bay Regional Hospital. He is regularly involved in primary ambulance medical responses and incident management. His interests include anaphylaxis, pre-hospital critical care, austere/medical practice and medical history. He is married to an Intensive Care Medicine Physician and has three beautiful children.
John qualified as an Operating Department Assistant in (ODA) 1983 and worked clinically at a few hospitals around the UK for just over twenty years. During this time John became involved in practice-based education and saw the ODA evolve into the Registered Operating Department Practitioner. During his four-year term on the council of AODP (now CODP), John took up the role in 2004 as lecturer in Operating Department Practice at the University of Leicester. Although now retired, he remains as a visiting lecturer and undertakes some work as a Perioperative Consultant for AfPP and other organisations. He regularly spends time in theatres to keep up to date with current practice and developments. He feels it imperative in his role to maintain one’s clinical credibility. John first became a member of the AfPP Governance Committee in 2014 before being elected as a Trustee in November 2017. In 2021 and 2022, he served as President of AfPP, the first RODP to take up the role. John represents AfPP on the Board of the Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC). This is a very influential UK wide collaboration which includes CODP and six Royal Colleges. John was also very involved in updating the HCPC ODP Standards of Proficiency as well as projects with NHS England and NHS Scotland which will chart the future of Perioperative practice.
Qualifying at St. Thomas’s Hospital in 1980 he has been a member of the Professional Council of the College of Operating Department Practitioners for forty years. Immediate past President and now Patient Safety Lead. Bill served as Chair of the Council for nine years from 1991 and was the first ODP President of CODP, serving fifteen years from 2002. Bill played a key role in the development of the ODP as a profession, including Registration with the HCPC in 2004 and recently leading the Colleges’ submission whereby ODPs joined the AHP family in 2017. As an advocate of patient safety, he represented the profession on the Surgical Never Events Taskforce, chairing a writing group that produced the National Safety Standards for Invasive Procedures (NatSSIPs), continuing as a member of NHSI’s Never Events Focus Groups. Bill is a Trustee of the charity Action Against Medical Accidents - AvMA.org.uk In 2018 the Royal College of Anaesthetists recognised his contribution to the development of the ODP Profession and patient safety, conferring its highest award of Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College, FRCA. And in 2022 he became an Honorary Doctor at Birmingham City University. Bill has worked for the NHS for forty-six years, forty-five as an ODP - student and qualified. He recently returned from a brief retirement to the role of Divisional Director for Women and Child Health Services at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust where he is proud to be an ODP and a member of #WeAHPs in the role.
A/Prof Kara Allen is a specialist anaesthetist and Head of Education in the Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Management, Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Lead Liaison for the Parkville Precinct with the Gandel Simulation Service. She co-developed the CRASH course, a bi-national return to work program. She holds leadership positions at the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists in the executive education committees and is an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, Department of Critical Care.
Specialist in Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, Clinical Lead, Women’s Health Pain Service. National Women’s, Auckland City Hospital. I trained in the UK and worked as a consultant in Edinburgh before moving with my wife to New Zealand in 2016. I combine clinical anaesthesia with pain medicine and have a particular interest in the management of pain in pregnancy. In 2021 I published an account of my experiences with fentanyl addiction and have gone on to speak openly on the subject in an attempt to educate our community and perhaps help those among us who continue to suffer.
Joanne Baxter (Poutini Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō) is a Public Health Medicine Physician. She is Dean of the Dunedin School of Medicine / Te Kura Whaiora o Ōtepoti and Co-director of the Māori Health Workforce Development Unit. She has also been a member of the Ministry of Health’s Health Workforce Advisory Board and the Te Whatu Ora, Health Workforce Taskforce. Joanne is recognised for her research on Māori mental health, ethnic health inequalities, indigenous medical education and Māori health workforce development. Joanne has played a critical role in strategic Māori development within the Health Sciences Division including leading a team to dramatically increase the recruitment, retention and achievement of Māori students in health sciences and health professional programmes.
Associate Professor Yusuf Ozgur Cakmak (MD, PhD) is a leading expert in applied anatomy for non-invasive wearable neuromodulation and remote health monitoring using nearable devices. A/Prof. Cakmak leads point-of-care technologies theme for Centre for Bioengineering at the University of Otago, where he holds an Associate Professor position at the Department of Anatomy. Cakmak holds over ten international patents and has founded spinoff companies specializing in wearable neuromodulation and mobile phone-based diagnostics in the US. He is also a member of Interventional Technologies theme at NZ Consortium for Medical Device Technologies and provides invited expert opinions to numerous governmental grants, including NIH (US), ERC (EU), and MRFF (Australia). Cakmak’s research is supported by Health Research Council New Zealand and New Zealand Medical Technologies Centre of Research Excellence grants.
Dr Carolyn Deng is a specialist anaesthetist at the Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Care, Te Toka Tumai Auckland and an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Auckland. She completed a Master of Public Health with first class honours in 2019. Her research interests are in surgical epidemiology, health equity, and studying the effects of anaesthesia on the brain, such as in acute ischaemic stroke and understanding cognitive outcomes after surgery. She is the principal investigator on a proposed multicentre clinical trial studying the effects of depth of anaesthesia on postoperative delirium.
Dr. Fionnuala Fagan is a haematologist with a specialization in coagulation, bleeding, and non-malignant hematology. With a passion for education, equity, diversity, and equality, she has dedicated her career to providing quality healthcare services in regional and rural areas. Dr. Fagan has made significant contributions to the medical field through her research, clinical practice, and involvement in various professional committees and organizations.
Jeremy is an Anaesthetist and Intensive Care Specialist living in Toowoomba, Queensland but originally trained in Wellington. He is the Director of the St Vincent's Private Hospital Toowoomba Intensive Care Unit and is the Perioperative Care Service Clinical Lead. He is the immediate past chair of the Anaesthesia (ANZCA-ASA-NZSA) Perioperative Medicine Special Interest Group and was the chair of the multi-speciality working group that developed the Perioperative Framework. His current interests include perioperative medicine development, high-risk perioperative assessment and collaborative health care delivery. He was the founding contributor of the Critical Care Compendium - an online, open-access critical care encyclopaedia at www.lifeinthefastlane.com. He is also a lecturer for the Rural Clinical School, University of Queensland.
Dr Renee Franklin FANZCA DipPOM is a Consultant Anaesthetist working in the Bay of Plenty NZ. She is the clinical lead of the Preassessment Service at Tauranga Hospital and a member of both the NZSA and the Perioperative SIG Executive Committees. Her areas of interest include Perioperative Medicine and Service Improvement with a particular focus on identifying and addressing cultural inequity. Renee has lived in Tauranga for 10 years with her husband and 3 children. In her spare time, she enjoys running and spending time in her greenhouse.
Jemma is a Professor and Rutherford Discovery Fellow at the University of Otago in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. She is an evolutionary virologist with a strong research focus on emerging infectious disease. Her research focuses on determining the fundamental patterns and processes of viral evolution, ecology and emergence. Jemma's research involves using metagenomics to reveal the diversity, structure and evolution of the virosphere; examining the evolution of major viral infections, including SARS-CoV-2; and developing new analytical and computational approaches to analyse aspects of virus evolution. Jemma holds a joint position at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research, which is the National Infectious Disease Reference Laboratory in New Zealand, and co-led genomic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in New Zealand.
James Higham is a Distinguished Professor of Tourism and Transportation at Griffith University, and Honorary Professor at the University of Otago with interests in diverse aspects of sustainability. His current research addresses the decarbonisation of tourism and transportation, with a particular focus on air travel.
Dr Chuan-Whei Lee is a consultant anaesthetist and pain medicine specialist at Royal Melbourne Hospital. She is a staff specialist and joint clinical lead of perioperative medicine in the Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Management, RMH; a clinical senior lecturer in the Department of Critical Care, University of Melbourne; and a supervisor of training for the Faculty of Pain Medicine, ANZCA. Chuan-Whei completed a Masters in Palliative Care in 2018. She was in the multi-college document development group for the co-badged professional document PG67 – Guidelines for care of patients at the end of life who are considered for surgery (2022). Her clinical and research interests include surgery in patients at the end of life and the incorporation of palliative care concepts into the perioperative period.
John McMillan chairs New Zealand’s National Ethics Advisory Committee (NEAC). This committee advises the Minister of Health on matters of national significance and establishes the ethical standards for research in New Zealand. He is a Professor at the Bioethics Centre at the University of Otago and has worked on a range on issues within bioethics. He is the current Editor in Chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics.
Assoc Prof Wayne Morriss is a fulltime specialist anaesthetist at Christchurch Hospital. He trained in Christchurch and Melbourne and worked in Fiji for two years before settling in Christchurch. Wayne is the current President of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists and Chair of the WFSA Board and Council. He served as Chair of the Education Committee from 2012-2016 and Director of Programmes from 2016-2020. Wayne was the inaugural chair of both the ANZCA Overseas Aid Committee (now Global Development Committee) and the NZSA Overseas Aid Subcommittee (now Global Health Committee). He has also been closely involved with the development and delivery of a range of educational programmes, including Essential Pain Management, Primary Trauma Care, and the WFSA Fellowship Programme.
I am an almost retired anaesthetist, trained in Germany, UK and NZ. Made my home in Dunedin where I am happily settled. Co-founder of Anaesthetic Pre-Assessment Clinic APAC at Dunedin DHB. Through this work I developed strong advocacy for Shared Decision Making and patient involvement in “Getting fit & ready for Surgery”. I strongly belief that patients have the right & responsibility to be an active participant in their surgical journey as well as in all decisions regarding their health. Married to a surgeon & two junior doctor children! Keen on the outdoors, finding peace and inspiration when roaming the country side with my dog.
Courtney Thomas is an Anaesthetist of Ngāi Tahu and Te Arawa descent based in Christchurch, New Zealand. Courtney has played an active role in Indigenous medical education as a Senior Lecturer with the University of Otago and is currently completing her doctorate through the University of Auckland. Her research employs Kaupapa Māori research methodology and aims to explore Māori experiences of Anaesthesia in the perioperative setting. She aims to identify factors promoting and impeding interaction with Māori patients in the perioperative setting and to make recommendations for delivering culturally safe care in that setting.
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