SOA27

Hannah Conway

Advanced Practitioner in Critical Care and National Lead for FUSIC® Heart, UK

Hannah Conway is an Advanced Critical Care Practitioner and Associate Professor of Advanced Clinical Practice, specialising in cardiothoracic critical care.

As National Lead for FUSIC® Heart and Deputy Chair of the FUSIC® Committee, she champions the development of critical care ultrasound education and professional

 

 

Dr Andrew Conway-Morris

Consultant Intensivist, University of Cambridge/Addenbrooke’s Hospital

Dr Conway Morris is a critical care consultant and MRC Clinician Scientist based at the University of Cambridge.  He trained at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, undertaking a PhD in Edinburgh focused on immune failure in critical illness and nosocomial infection.  His research interests include neutrophil function and dysfunction in critical illness, where he identified complement component C5a as a key driver of dysfunction in patients.  He has also developed and tested a number of diagnostics for pneumonia, using both host and pathogen-focussed techniques.  His animating force is a desire to improve the management of infection in intensive care, and combat the rising tide of antimicrobial resistance.  He was recently awarded the Royal College of Anaesthetists 2023 Mackintosh Professorship.   He is the director of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine’s research and antimicrobial stewardship learning pathways.

: @andymoz78

Professor Paul Dark

Vice Dean for Health and Care Partnerships, University of Manchester

Paul studied undergraduate physics and medicine. Graduating from The Manchester Medical School, he went on to study clinical academic surgery, emergency medicine and critical care at the Universities of Glasgow and Manchester in the UK, and at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

As MRC PhD Clinical Training Fellow, supervised by Professor Rod Little, he developed methods to transduce and study dynamic cardio-respiratory responses to tissue injury and haemorrhage. This work produced key evidence for the validation and refinement of minimally-invasive patient monitoring technologies including Doppler ultrasound and arterial pulse wave analysis systems.

He was appointed to his current clinical academic post at the University of Manchester in 2003, developing clinical services and academic practice in Critical Care Medicine at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (Salford Care Organisation). He developed and provides leadership for a programme of work, funded mainly by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR), investigating the clinical and cost effectiveness of emerging molecular diagnostic technologies in the setting of sterile tissue injury and severe infections (sepsis) within both high and low resource healthcare settings internationally. Funded by NIHR Manchester BRC, NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Emergency and Acute Care and Innovate UK in partnership with industry, he also co-leads an ongoing programme of work developing novel technologies aimed at rapid point-of-care infection/sepsis theragnosis with the objective of optimising patient exposure to antimicrobial drugs.

Paul was NIHR Clinical Research Network's National Deputy Medical Director (2022 - 24). He provided strategic leadership for the development, delivery and accessibility of a large portfolio of national clinical research in NHS acute hospital settings and he represented NIHR internationally. As a former NIHR National Specialty Lead for Critical Care (2015-22), he served on NIHR's Urgent Public Health Research Advisory Group, providing expert advice on research priority for the Department of Health and Social Care and UK's Chief Medical Officers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He is also Research Professor at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, providing strategic interdisciplinary leadership in global health and social justice.

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-dark-33002722?lip
: @https://x.com/darknatter

Wg Cdr Toby Elkington

Consultant Anaesthetist and Intensivist, Royal Air Force

Wg Cdr Toby Elkington is an RAF Consultant Anaesthetist and Intensivist, currently posted to 16 Medical Regiment. He holds an Honorary Consultant contract at Peterborough City Hospital. In May 2026 Toby tandem parachuted onto Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic as part of the UK Hantavirus response.

Following training in Manchester and the wider North West, Toby accepted a Consultant post in Peterborough in 2011 and enjoyed working with military colleagues so much that he went on to join the RAF in 2017. Following a period on the RAF's Critical Care Air Support Team rota and an overseas deployment, Toby posted into 16 Medical Regiment and it from here that he deployed to the South Atlantic.

Dr Ned (Edward) Gilbert-Kawai

Consultant Intensivist and Anaesthesia, Royal Liverpool Hospital

Ned Gilbert-Kawai is a Consultant in Critical Care Medicine & Anaesthesia at The Royal Liverpool University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and Co-Programme Director of SOA26.  Ned completed his PhD at University College London on the effect of hypoxia on microcirculation and then undertook a Masters in Genomic Medicine at Imperial College London. He was the Chief Scientific Officer for the Xtreme Everest 2 expedition (UCL Centre for Altitude, Space and Extreme Environment (CASE) Medicine, 2013), and has since maintained an interest in both cardiovascular physiology and genomic medicine. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Intensive Care Society and an examiner at the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine Exams.

Lt Col Jeyasankar Jeyanathan OBE

Defence Consultant Advisor for Intensive Care Medicine, British Armed Forces

Lt Col Jeyasankar “Jey” Jeyanathan OBE is the current serving Defence Consultant Advisor for Intensive Care Medicine for the British Armed Forces, holding cadre leadership across the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. A Military Consultant in Anaesthesia, Intensive Care Medicine and ECMO with the Defence Medical Services and St Bartholomew’s Hospital Trust, London, he has spent his career developing capabilities across the full spectrum of care for the critically ill and injured — across NHS, military, humanitarian and austere operational environments.

From the Middle East and Eastern Europe to South Sudan, Zambia, Uganda and Sri Lanka, Jey’s work centres on designing, and nurturing capabilities from inception, developing clinicians and inspiring teams to deliver care in austere and resource challenged environments. His talk offers a clear eyed look at what large scale combat operations mean for critical care and why calm, considered, collaborative preparedness is both possible and necessary.

Dr Justin Kirk-Bayley

Consultant Intensivist & Anaesthetist and National FUSIC® Lung Lead, UK

Justin Kirk-Bayley is a Consultant Intensivist & Anaesthetist at Royal Surrey NHS Trust in Guildford, UK where he has been Clinical Lead for ICU, and is now Deputy Medical Director. His clinical passion is for pragmatic delivery of point of care ultrasound, having run a training fellowship for over a decade and being a part of the ICS’s FUSIC committee. He has published and teaches ultrasound around the world. As his Trust’s Professional Director for Therapeutics, he is committed to medication safety and optimisation, lecturing internationally about improvement in medication process and has helped found the Turning the Tide group to improve the UK’s use of intravenous fluids. (@Turningthe_Tide)

: @PARADicmSHIFT

Professor Shondipon Laha

ICS President and Consultant in Critical Care Medicine and Anaesthesia, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Shondipon is a Consultant in intensive care and anaesthesia at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Intensive Care Society's President.

Shondipon is also Honorary President of the Association of North Western ICUs (ANWICU).

: www.ics.ac.uk
: @shond3

Dr Ashley Miller

Consultant Intensivist

Ashley Miller is an Intensivist at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals. His specialist area of interest is Intensive Care ultrasonography. The 1st person to become BSE accredited in Critical Care Echocardiography, he is a BSE committee member and examiner. He has co-authored guidelines for the BSE on assessing fluid responsiveness with echocardiography. He is an elected ICS council member and co-chair of the Focussed Ultrasound in Intensive Care (FUSIC) committee where he has helped introduce a modular curriculum and accreditation pathway for Intensive Care ultrasonography. He is a speaker on ultrasound at international conferences and teaches on ultrasound courses around the country. He is a published author on ultrasound and is co-editing a forthcoming textbook on critical care ultrasound.

: @icmteaching

Dr Claire Park

Consultant in Critical Care , Kings College Hospital and Prehospital Care for London HEMS

Dr Claire Park MBE is a Consultant in Critical Care at Kings College Hospital and in Prehospital Care for London HEMS. Claire is also a reserve army consultant with 23 years of previous regular army experience.

Claire is the London HEMS lead for Major Incidents and the Chief Investigator on a national research project looking at ‘Improving patient outcomes in the hot zone of major incidents.’ She is also the Medical Adviser for the Metropolitan Police Service, sits on the National Police Clinical Panel, is a Member of the Guidelines Committee for the US based Committee for Tactical Emergency Care (CTECC), a Board member of the British and Irish Tactical Medical Association (BRITMA) and Director and Co-Founder of the European Tactical Medical Association (ETMA).

Dr Park has worked closely with all of the emergency services in London on developing the joint response to high threat incidents. This multiagency work has included the development of a new primary scene triage tool which has now been implemented by all UK emergency services as well as the military and many voluntary aid organisations known as “Ten Second Triage.“

Dr Prashant Parulekar

Consultant in Intensive Care, Acute & General Internal Medicine and National Lead for FUSIC® Research, William Harvey Hospital

Prashant is a Consultant in Intensive Care, Acute & General Internal Medicine at William Harvey Hospital (East Kent Hospitals). He is an honorary senior lecturer at Queen Mary University London (QMUL), giving lectures regarding the role of echocardiography in resuscitation and chairing tutorials on diagnostics and imaging modalities in resuscitation. He teaches and lectures at both regional and national ultrasound and echo conferences and courses.

He is member of the national Focused Ultrasound in Intensive Care (FUSIC) committee and is BSE Level 2 accredited in Critical Care Echocardiography. He is a FUSIC & FICE (Focused Intensive Care Echocardiography) supervisor & mentor and runs national FUSIC courses. He is published in research in the use of echo and ultrasound in Intensive Care and Acute Medicine and in the assessment of haemodynamic status using echo.

Prashant was the Chief Investigator (CI) for the national lung ultrasound and echo CORONA study (COre ultRasOund of covid in iNtensive care & Acute medicine) assessing the lung ultrasound features and the incidence of left and right ventricular dysfunction in COVID ICU patients. He is the creator and co-host of Ultra Live, the world’s first live POCUS gameshow at the SOA this year. 

: @parulekar8550

Dr Marcus Peck

Consultant Intensivist and Anaesthetist and National Lead for FUSIC® Networking, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust

Marcus Peck is an NHS anaesthetist & intensive care consultant, past-cochair and current network lead of the Intensive Care Society’s Focused Ultrasound in Intensive Care (“FUSIC”) committee, and editor of the OUP textbook 'Focused Intensive Care Ultrasound'. He is a passionate POCUS advocate, who speaks and teaches widely, and sits on multiple national committees focused on improving POCUS training opportunities and quality assurance. He relishes breaking down organisational barriers and dreams of the day when POCUS is normal practice for every frontline clinician. You can find Marcus on X as @ICUltrasonica".

: @ICUltrasonica

Professor Zudin Puthucheary

Consultant Intensivist , UK

Dr Zudin Puthucheary is a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Intensive Care Medicine at the William Harvey Institute, Queen Mary, University of London, and a Consultant at the Royal London Hospital Adult Intensive Care Unit. He graduated from Nottingham University in 1997, and moved to London post MRCP in 2000. Following a 3-year stint in Sydney, he started his Respiratory training in Bristol, before completing his critical care training in London. He worked as a Respiratory and Critical Care Consultant at National University Hospital Singapore before returning to the UK.

His research focusses on acquired functional disability, and the use of metabolic, nutritional and exercise interventions to prevent and treat muscle wasting, and has published over 100 papers with a H index of 39. Zudin is a nationally elected Council member of the Intensive Care Society (UK). He was the inaugural chair of the UK National Post-Intensive Care Rehabilitation Collaborative, a multi-professional cross-disciplinary group focussing on rehabilitation and restitution of critical illness survivors. His work on acute muscle wasting has won awards from the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine , European Society of Anesthesia, the British Thoracic Society, the Intensive Care Society, The American Society of Enteral and Parenteral Nutrition and Zudin was named a Global Rising Star by the Australia and New Zealand Intensive Care Society.

He chairs the  UK National Post-Intensive Care Rehabilitation Collaborative, a multi-professional cross-disciplinary group focussing on rehabilitation and restitution of critical illness survivors. 

: @Zudin_P

Dr Antonio Rubino

Cardiothoracic Anaesthetist and Intensivist and National fTOE Lead, Co Chair of fTOE Subcommittee (AoA), Royal Papworth Hospital

Antonio Rubino is a cardiothoracic anaesthetist and Intensivist at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge. He is clinical lead for Organ Donation for the Eastern Region as part of the National Transplant service. He is Intenisve Care Society's national lead for the focused transoesohpageal echocardiography (fTOE) program. His research interest include critical care ultrasounds, ECMO and cardiothoracic donor organs optimisation.

: @AEA_rubino

Professor Mervyn Singer

Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, University College London

 Professor of Intensive Care Medicine at UCL.ICU consultant at UCLH since 1993. Published mainly on sepsis and multi-organ failure, infection, shock, monitoring. Developed various monitoring and support devices and has two ‘home-made’ drugs in current development. Co-chaired Sepsis-3 Definitions International Task Force. Past-Chair, International Sepsis Forum. Emeritus NIHR Senior Investigator. Written various textbooks e.g. Oxford Handbook of Critical Care. Has run Medical Emergencies Courses for >25 years. Masochistic Spurs season ticket holder. Loves being iconoclastic and gently provocative.

Dr Jennie Stephens

Consultant in Intensive Care and Acute Medicine, and National Lead for FUSIC® Abdomen, Royal Cornwall Hospital

Jennie is the Chair of the FUSIC committee and National lead for FUSIC Abdomen.

She works as a Consultant in Intensive care and Acute Medicine in, the sometimes sunny but always beautiful, Cornwall in Southwest England.

She was a founding member of three of the major working groups for point-of-care ultrasound (FUSIC, FAMUS and CACTUS).  She continues to teach POCUS on a regular basis in her local setting but also nationally and via remote mentorship.

She is the clinical lead for OPAT (Outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy) in Cornwall and supervises a nursing team delivering acute care in the community.

She is a mum to 2 boys, cross-fit enthusiast and occasionally competent gardener.

Dr Ema Swingwood OBE

Consultant Physiotherapist, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust

Ema is a Consultant Physiotherapist in Critical Care at Bristol NHS Foundation Trust. Her area of clinical expertise and interest is ventilation, weaning and complex airway clearance. She has lectured at International conferences over a number of years around these topics.

Her PhD work focused on the use of Mechanical Insufflation-Exsufflation in the intubated population which was funded through the NIHR Clinical Academic Research Fellowship pathway. Post-doctoral work continues to examine the role of airway clearance interventions in the ICU population, which includes recent development of a core outcome set. She is a current Senior Clinical Practitioner Research Award holder (2025-7).

Regarding research capacity and capability building, Ema is passionate about developing others. She is the current Adult Therapies and Division of Diagnostics and Therapies Research Lead.  Most recently she was a co-applicant on a successful NIHR Health and Care Professions Internship Programme for Southwest Central and lead applicant NIHR Undergraduate Internship Placement award. Education contributions include the Physiotherapy programmes at the University of the West of England and University College London. She sits on the Intensive Care Society (ICS) Physiotherapy Professional Advisory Group (Deputy Chair) and Education Committee, she is a current Programme Director for the ICS annual congress (SOA) and Deputy Chair for Professional Affairs.

: @emaroids1

Dr Jonny Wilkinson

Consultant Intensivist and Anaesthetist and National Lead for FUSIC® Blocks, Northampton General Hospital

Dr. Jonny Wilkinson (MBChB.MRCP.FRCA.FFICM) is a Consultant in Intensive care medicine and Anaesthesia in Northampton, UK. He trained in Nottingham, where he undertook a fellowship in thoracic anaesthesia. He is the editor in chief of the Oxford Handbook of Thoracic Anaesthesia and founder of www.criticalcarenorthampton.com. When not on Twitter , he is a national and international expert in point of care ultrasound, with specialist interests in the use of handheld devices to assess the critically ill patient. He is a course director for Advanced Trauma Life support and NICE IV fluid lead for his trust, promoting safe fluid prescription and education on fluid physiology. He is a member of the ICS council and the FUSIC committee (Focused Intensive Care Ultrasound). He is faculty for The State of The Art Intensive Care Society meeting, the International Fluid Academy, the Critical Care Symposium and RA-UK. He enjoys speaking / teaching on all that is ultrasound, nationally and Internationally.

: @Wilkinsonjonny

Dr Rachel Wong

Consultant Intensivist, Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia and ECMO and Co Chair of fTOE Subcommittee (ICS), Royal Brompton Hospital

Dr Rachel Wong is a Consultant at the Royal Brompton Hospital, specialising in Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia, Intensive Care, and ECMO. Rachel holds Level 2 accreditation in EACVI TOE and serves as a mentor for FUSIC and FAMUS across all existing modules. She is co-chair of the fTOE committee. When not instructing in Echocardiography or Ultrasound, Rachel dedicates her time to training and developing roles allied to medicine, including Clinical Scientists and Advanced Practitioners in Critical Care.

: @RachelWongLiene

Dr Parjam (PJ) Zolfaghari

Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia, The Royal London Hospital

PJ was born in Iran and moved to the UK when he was 11 years old. He studied medicine at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ (UMDS) and after initially training to be a surgeon, he switched to anaesthesia and critical care medicine training in East London. He did his PhD with Mervyn Singer at UCL on mitochondrial dysfunction in sepsis and multiorgan failure before starting his consultant post at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, London. His interests are metabolic response in critical illness and trauma. His current main focus is his passion for teaching: he runs the Critical Care MSc at Queen Mary University London and is a senior lecturer in the Critical Care and Perioperative Medicine Research Group at QMUL. He is also one of the associate editors of BJA Education. He was Programme Director for three editions of SOA (2023 to 2025) and is very excited to bring education, research and debate to this multi-professional meeting, as well as great social events in the evenings (another one of his passions!). 

: @PJZolfaghari