SOA Congress 2026 | #SOA26

Dr Sekina Bakare

Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia, Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare Trust, London

Dr Bakare is currently an Advanced Trainee in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia in Northwest London. She graduated with Honours from the University of Bristol and commenced her career in the West Country before pursuing Specialty Training in Northwest London. As an elected member of the Trainee Advisory Group of the Intensive Care Society and leverages her expertise to contribute actively to the society's Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Working Group. She also holds the additional responsibility of serving as the EDI lead on the Editorial Board for GPCISv3.

Dr Bakare is deeply passionate about advancing Equity in Healthcare and Medical Education, with clinical interests spanning Major General Surgery and Transfer Medicine.

: @@sekina_bakare

Dr Andrew Breen

Consultant Intensivist, Leeds Teaching Hospitals

Andy is a consultant in ICM working in Leeds Teaching Hospitals, having been appointed in 2005. He is Clinical Director for Adult Critical Care in Leeds, and an elected the Intensive Care Society's Honorary Secretary.  He graduated in Liverpool in 1995, where he completed his clinical training in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine.

Andy has strong interest in point-of-care ultrasound, having been a founding member of the FICE committee, current member of the FUSIC committee and co-author of a number of POCUS accreditation programmes. Other interests include ethical decision making and advance care planning, the science of quality improvement and IV fluids education.

: @ICUbreeno

James Bruce

Clinical Occupational Therapist, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHSFT

James is an Occupational Therapist employed by the ICU at the Bristol Royal Infirmary Hospital. He is an ICU clinical specialist and in a unique role promoting early rehabilitation, humanistic care and rehabilitation education to his ICU team. He has had the opportunity to engage patients in early rehabilitation, screening rehabilitation needs and delivering rehabilitation through the post ICU inpatient journey.

James is interested in upper limb dysfunction post critical illness,  long term functional outcomes, and learning from patients to improve acute care. 

He has had the privilege of co-authoring the Occupational Therapy chapter for GPICS V2 & V3; GPICS Rehabilitation chapter V3; a member of the steering group for the upcoming NCEPOD rehabilitation post critical illness study; he supported the development of the AHP critical care professional development framework; is a member of the ICS AHP professional advisory group and co-chairs the AHP Critical Care Network for the South West of England.

Professor Luigi Camporota

Consultant Intensivist , Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Luigi Camporota is consultant in critical care and Lead of the Severe Respiratory Failure and ECMO Service at St Thomas’ Hospital. He is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Intensive Care Medicine at King’s College London.

Luigi Camporota is the Chair of the Acute Respiratory Failure Section of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) and on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (AJRCCM) and Intensive Care Medicine (ICM). His clinical and research interest is His clinical and research interest in Respiratory failure, ARDS, mechanical ventilation, respiratory monitoring, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal (ECCO2R). He has contributed to over 200 published peer-reviewed papers and > 20 book chapters and edited a book in Intensive Care.

 

: @Luigi_ICM

Professor Bronwen Connolly

Professor of Critical Care, Queen’s University Belfast

Bronwen Connolly is a critical care physiotherapist, and Senior Lecturer in Critical Care at Queen’s University Belfast.  She is the Chief Investigator of the NIHR HTA-funded MARCH trial, investigating the effectiveness of mucoactive drugs in acute respiratory failure, and leads the development of a core outcome set for trials of physical rehabilitation in critical illness.  Bronwen is the recipient of three previous NIHR Fellowships, and her research interests focus on acute respiratory and rehabilitation physiotherapy, the recovery, long-term outcome and survivorship of post critical illness patients, and clinical trial methodology around complex rehabilitation interventions.  Bronwen sits on the NIHR Critical Care National Specialty Group and the UK Critical Care Research Group.

 

: @@bronwenconnolly

Professor 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 Chair of the Advanced Practitioners in Critical Care Professional Advisory Group, she champions the development of critical care education and professional standards.

https://linktr.ee/cardiacaccp

 

 

: @cardiacACCP

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

Dr Paul Dean

ICS Honorary Treasurer and Chief Clinical Information Officer, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust

Dr Paul Dean is a Consultant in intensive care at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, and former Chair of the Society's Standards Division. He continues to be responsible for leading national work such as the Guidelines for the Provision of Intensive Care Services (GPICS), setting the standard in which every ICU in the country should operate. 

 

Paul is also Medical Lead for Lancashire and South Cumbria Critical Care Network.

: @d1975p

Jill Featherstone

Specialist Nurse in Organ Donation, NHSBT

I joined NHSBT’s Professional Development Team following time as a Specialist Nurse Organ Donation with the Northern Region at James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough. This was following a long career in critical care with a wide range of critical care experience with leadership experience both in critical care and in the volunteer and charity business sector.  

I work collaboratively with national and regional medical leads to develop and deliver training opportunities for NHSBT partners in the clinical areas both in the UK and internationally. This includes the highly regarded and award winning National Deceased Donation Course. This course provides donation education to both adult and paediatric trainees becoming our next generation of consultants. Induction programmes for CLODs and Trust/Health board Organ Donation Committee Chairs are core to local donation service leadership and conference opportunities achieve a wider audience reach. My role also supports a more cohesive multidisciplinary approach across the package of education programmes the Professional Development Team deliver.

Our aim is to build confidence and excellence in donation practice, train in multidisciplinary ways and remain world class by providing a high level of engagement, interest and academic rigour whilst complementing specialist nurse training for a cohesive approach.

I am passionate about the family end of life experience, teamwork, simulation, service improvement and innovation using a wide variety of forums to have the greatest impact and reach as possible.

: @JillFeatherston

Dr Polly Fitch

Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Royal London Hospital

Polly Fitch is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist working in Adult Critical Care at the Royal London Hospital in East London. Working in this role since 2017 she has responsibility for delivering psychological interventions for patients, relatives, and staff in the Intensive Care Unit. She has particular interests in talking about death and dying in acute health settings including how best to facilitate difficult news conversations and support end of life situations. She has specialist experience of facilitating discussions and decision making around complex medical information in the context of a diverse patient population with differing health beliefs. In addition, she is committed to working with colleagues across the Trust to promote reflection and learning in relation to communicating about death and bereavement, including facilitating Schwartz Rounds, Death Cafes and co-organising the Barts Health Annual Bereavement Conference. She has previously held posts in the Tower Hamlets Palliative Care Team (with specialist input to respiratory services) and the Tower Hamlets Community Learning Disability Service. She retains strong links with health psychologists working across the borough. She is a member of PINC-UK (Psychologists working in Intensive Care), the BPS and is HPC registered.

Dr Luke Flower

Specialty Registrar & Doctoral Research Fellow, University of Cambridge

Dr Flower is a Specialty Registrar in Intensive Care Medicine in London and a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge’s Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart and Lung Research Institute. His research, supported by Cambridge University's first Engineered Pandemic Research Programme Doctoral Fellowship, focuses on immune dysregulation in severe acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure.

He holds national leadership roles as Co-Chair of the UK Trainee Research in Intensive Care Network and Academic Representative for Specialty Registrars within the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine. He also serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of the Intensive Care Society.

Dr Flower also has an interest in critical care ultrasound and shock. He was the national lead for NEAT-ECHO, the largest study to date investigating critical care echocardiography in shock, and Lead Editor of the textbook Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Critical Care.

He is a member of the Intensive Care Society’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Working Party and has received the ICS People’s Champion Award and the Association of Anaesthetists’ Kathleen Ferguson Award for his work to advance healthcare equity.”

: @LukeFlower1

Professor Kevin Fong

Consultant Anaesthetist, University College London Hospitals

Kevin Fong is consultant anaesthetist at UCLH and professor of public engagement and innovation in the Department of Science, Technology, Education and Public Policy (STEaPP) at University College London. Dually accredited in anaesthesia and critical care medicine, he also works as a helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) doctor with Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex. In March 2020, Kevin was seconded to NHS England as National Clinical Advisor in Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response for the COVID-19 incident.

He is an honorary senior lecturer in physiology at University College London, where he organises and runs an undergraduate course in Extreme Environment Physiology. He studied astrophysics and medicine at University College London and a masters in astronautics and space engineering at Cranfield University. He is a member of Royal College of Physicians, a Fellow of the Royal College of anaesthetists and has completed postgraduate clinical training in Anaesthesia and Critical Care Medicine. Kevin has a long standing interest in human space exploration and space medicine and has worked with NASA's Human Adaptation and Countermeasures Office at Johnson Space Centre in Houston.

Dale Gardiner

National Clinical Lead for Organ Donation, NHSBT

Dr Dale Gardiner is a Consultant in Adult Intensive Care Medicine at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and the Associate Medical Director – Deceased Organ Donation at NHS Blood and Transplant.

His professional interests are medical ethics, the diagnosis of death and deceased organ donation.

Dale is a Board Member of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and Chair of the Professional Affairs and Safety Committee. He is co-chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges task and finish group to update the 2008 Code of Practice for the Diagnosis and Confirmation of Death.

Originally, Dale came from Australia but migrated to the UK in 2002.

: @dalecgardiner

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.  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.

Dr Steve Harris

Chief Research Information Officer, University College London Hospital Biomedical Research Centre

Steve Harris is a Principal Research Fellow in Translational Data Science at UCL, an NHS Consultant in Critical Care, and the Chief Research Information Officer at UCLH Biomedical Research Centre. He has held fellowships from Wellcome, and the Health Foundation, and won more than £10m in grant funding. He is Co-Director of the Central London NIHR Patient Safety Research Collaborative, and co-investigator for CHIMERA, the Wellcome Innovation Flagship Critical Care Asia, and co-leads the NIHR Health Informatics Collaborative for Critical Care. At UCLH, he led the implementation of the Experimental Medicine Application Platform (EMAP) and FlowEHR that aim to bridge the 'AI chasm', and deliver algorithms and inference to the bedside.

Rebekah Haylett

Physiotherapist in Critical Care and and ICS Physio Professional Advisory Group, Chair

Becky is a Physiotherapist working in Oxford and is the Chair of the ICS Physiotherapy Professional Advisory Group.  Since qualifying in 2006 she has remained committed to the speciality of intensive care, and to the recovery of critically ill patients across their entire pathway.  Throughout her career she has developed interests in multiprofessional education, service development, and advanced practice, and is currently undergoing accreditation as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner.  Becky has continued to make contributions to a range of educational sessions for multiprofessional groups, at undergraduate and multiple stages of postgraduate training. She is keen to ensure that all professional groups have opportunities to advance knowledge and skills in all domains of clinical practice, and actively promotes the sharing and exchange of knowledge and practice, critical analysis and development.  Quality improvement remain a key focus of her work, and she is dedicated to projects stemming from clinical practice.

: @Becky_HPhysio

Dr Thomas Hellyer

Clinician Scientist in Critical Care Medicine, Newcastle University

Senior clinical fellow / honorary consultant critical care medicine.

I am a clinician scientist in critical care medicine at Newcastle University and my clinical practice is based in the Royal Victoria Infirmary intensive care department. My research focuses on improving antibiotic stewardship in critically ill patients. Striking the right balance of effectively treating patients with severe infections while avoiding harms associated with antibiotic overuse, is challenging for critically ill patients.

My current research focuses on optimising antibiotic durations in patients with sepsis. RISC-sepsis is an NIHR EME funded project that is an embedded mechanistic trial within a large pragmatic RCT. We immune phenotype patients to determine whether sepsis-induced immune dysfunction impacts antibiotic stewardship interventions. SHORTER is an NIHR HTA funded pragmatic RCT that aims to determine whether short, fixed-course antibiotics (5 days) are safe and effective in critically ill patients with sepsis.

Professor Andy Higgs

Consultant in ICM & Anaesthesia, Warrington Teaching Hospitals

Andy Higgs is a Consultant in Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine in Warrington Hospitals, Cheshire, having trained in Liverpool, North West England and Melbourne, Australia. He has a long-standing interest in airway management, especially extubation and in the ICU. Andy was Clinical Director of ICU between 2005 and 2007 and joint Clinical Lead Anaesthesia/ICU from 2007 to 2011. He is a faculty member and contributor to the Aintree Difficult Airway Management course. He co-authored the Difficult Airway Society Extubation Guidelines (2012) and chairs the joint Royal College of Anaesthetists/Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine/DAS group, aiming to produce a guideline for Airway Management in the Critically Ill.

Dr Julie Highfield

Consultant Clinical Psychologist , Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Julie Highfield is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Lead for Organisational Health in Adult and Paediatric Critical Care, Cardiff. She is the National Project Director for Wellbeing in the Intensive Care Society. She has a long experience of working as a psychologist in medical and health care settings and works closely with staff in their experience of working in healthcare, as well as advising managers on matters of workforce wellbeing. Julie has worked with the British Psychological Society and its Division of Clinical Psychology in Wales. She led the BPS team writing the National Guidance for Staff in the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Julie works with the Welsh Assembly Government in various projects, including as the lead for Critical Care Workforce Task and Finish Group, and Modelling for Rehabilitation for patients post COVID-19, and the Wellbeing Conversation Tool. She has a number of publications and book chapters in the field of critical care, staff wellbeing, and leadership.

 

: @DrJulie_H

Dr Ben Ivory

Consultant Intensivist and Anaesthetist, NHSBT

Ben is a consultant in intensive care and anaesthesia at Torbay Hospital, South Devon.  He has been the national education lead for organ donation with NHS Blood and Transplant for the last 7 years, delivering, alongside the education team, the acclaimed national Deceased Donation Simulation Course.  The team won the inaugural ICS education award in 2020 and deliver education around donation, ethical decision making and end of life conversations to national and international audiences.  In his spare time he enjoys landscape photography and slow running.

: @bennoivory

Gemma Jones

Clinical Lead Speech and Language Therapist for Critical Care, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

Gemma is a Speech and Language Therapist based in Cardiff with over 20 years of experience in Intensive Care. She specialises in dysphagia management, FEES, tracheostomy management, and supporting communication for patients who are critically ill.

Gemma is Chair of the National Specialist Interest Group for SLTs in Intensive Care and a member of the ICS AHP Professional Advisory Group. She also serves as a Specialist Advisor to the RCSLT for Critical Care. Her contributions include developing national policies and guidelines such as the ICS SLT Pillar, RCSLT Tracheostomy Competencies for SLTs, and the ICS Capability Framework.

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 Honorary Secretary. He is also the Society's Learning Division Chair leading the education and ultrasound programme across the UK.

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

: www.ics.ac.uk
: @shond3

Professor Nazir Lone

ICS Director of Research and Professor of Critical Care and Epidemiology, University of Edinburgh

Nazir is a Professor of Critical Care and Epidemiology and one of the Intensive Care Society's Directors of Research. Nazir’s programme of research focuses on health services research and health care quality improvement for acutely ill patients. His research aims to directly improve the quality of care for patients before, during and after an episode of acute or critical illness through rigorously conducted research and engagement with key stakeholders. He has a particular research interest in epidemiological methods and using linked 'big' data, multimorbidity and end-of-life care in acute and critical care settings. 

His current programme of work includes NIHR-funded work to apply artificial intelligence (AI) methods in the context of multimorbidity (AIM-CISC) in which he co-leads work to develop AI tools to reduce adverse events. Furthermore, he leads Innovate UK funded work to improve multimorbidity recognition in emergency care settings using data analytics. 

: @ICULone

Professor David McWilliams

Professor of Critical Care and Rehabilitation , Centre for Care Excellence, University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust

David McWilliams is a Professor of Critical Care and Rehabilitation and Clinical Academic Physiotherapist at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust and Coventry University's Centre for Care Excellence. He is the chair of the physiotherapy working group for the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, and Chair of the Intensive Care Society National Rehabilitation Collaborative. David was a member of the guideline development group for the NICE guideline ‘Critical Illness rehabilitation’ and led an NCEPOD study into rehabilitation and recovery following critical illness. David is recognised as an international expert on critical care physiotherapy and rehabilitation, regularly presenting both nationally and internationally on the subject.

: @Davido744

Dr Victoria Metaxa

Consultant in Critical Care, King's College Hospital

Dr Victoria Metaxa is a full-time Critical Care and Major Trauma Consultant, at King’s College Hospital in London. She is a King's College London Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer, and has a PhD in neurosciences and an MA in Medical Ethics and Palliative Care from Keele University. Her clinical interests include bioethics, end-of-life care, critical care outreach and the management of patients with haematological malignancies. Dr Metaxa is a member of the European Society of Intensive Care (ESICM) Ethics section, and the representative of the section in the e-learning committee. She is the UK National Outreach Forum board Secretary and a member of the Legal and Ethical Advisory Group of the UK Intensive Care Society (ICS).  

Professor Hugh Montgomery

Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, University College London

Prof Hugh Montgomery obtained a first-class degree in cardiorespiratory physiology/neuropharmacology before graduating from the Middlesex Hospital Medical school in 1987. He has since gained accreditation in general internal medicine, cardiology and intensive care medicine, and practices as a consultant in intensive care at the Whittington hospital in North London.

Hugh obtained his research degree (MD) in 1997, and is Professor of Intensive Care at UCL, where he directed the Institute for Human Health and Performance. Hugh's interest has been in the use of environmental stressors in the exploration of human (patho)physiology – often using a genetic approach. He was the first to discover a 'gene for human fitness'. He has published over 450 scientific articles.

Hugh also has a strong interest in environmental impacts on health, and in climate change in particular.

His current roles are:

• Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, UCL
• Director, UCL Institute for Human Health and Performance
• Consultant Intensivist, Whittington Hospital
• London Leader, GLA.

Professor Ramani Moonesinghe OBE

National Clinical Director for Critical and Perioperative Care, NHS England

I am the National Clinical Director for Critical and Perioperative care at NHS England, a Professor at UCL and a consultant at UCL Hospitals (UCLH). During the pandemic, I provided national leadership for critical care – this included clinically leading the government’s Ventilator Challenge and overseeing all clinical and operational support for NHSE’s critical care response across a range of issues including workforce support (including securing £10 million to support mental health and wellbeing support for the critical care community), medicines and equipment procurement and clinical guidelines. Subsequently I led the NHSE critical care transformation programme which increased critical care bed capacity by 25%, commissioned regional adult critical care transfer services, provided intensive care training for thousands of nurses, pharmacists and AHPs, and supported service modernisation including enhanced care services. I continue in this role at NHSE, and in addition, during 2025, took on the full-time role of National Director of Patient Safety for 6 months. I am currently leading the development of the Modern Service Framework for Sepsis, which will commit to improving care and outcomes for patients with severe infection over the next 10 years, which will be published in 2026.  

Academically, I lead and support research across the translational pathway from device development and validation through to clinical trials and policy research. My academic roles include being head of the Research Dept for Targeted Intervention at UCL, Director of the NIHR Central London Patient Safety Research Collaboration and co-lead of the Critical and Perioperative Care theme of the UCLH Biomedical Research Centre. I have been chief investigator on research studies recruiting over 110,000 participants to the NIHR portfolio. I am a firm believer in supporting the role of the resident and non-medical workforce in clinical research.  I established high-profile resident-led infrastructure projects (e.g. the original “RAFT’ - first trainee research network in anaesthesia/perioperative care, and the RCoA’s trainee-led Sprint National Anaesthesia Project programme), and my studies have provided support for over 250 NIHR Associate Principal Investigators.  I also mentor early and mid-career researchers from the breadth of the NHS workforce including nurses, pharmacists and allied health professionals.

Outside work, I am married to a very patient and supportive inventor and live in Sussex with him and our adopted children aged 6, 9 and 10. I was awarded the honour of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2021 for services to anaesthesia, perioperative and critical care.

: @rmoonesinghe

Paul Mouncey

Co-Director, ICNARC

Paul is Co-Director, and Clinical Trials Unit Director, at the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre (ICNARC) . Paul is an epidemiologist with over 20 years’ experience of conducting multicentre randomised clinical trials, initially in Cancer, but at ICNARC focussed in adult and paediatric critical care. Paul is currently the Joint-Chief Investigator for the UK-ROX trial (NIHR130508), which is a highly challenging trial within the critical care setting, using extensive data collected routinely by the national clinical audit for critical care (Case Mix Programme) database.

Paul is the lead for the Development of an adaptive platform trial in paediatric critical care and sits on the REMAP-CAP International Trial Steering Committee. He sits on both the NIHR Critical Care National Specialty Specialty Group, which has responsibility for overseeing delivery of studies on the NIHR portfolio for critical care, and the UK Critical Care Research Group.

: @paulmouncey

Brenda O'Neill

Professor in Physiotherapy and lead for the Centre for Health and Rehabilitation Technologies (CHaRT) School of Health Sciences, Ulster University, Northern Ireland

Brenda O’Neill is a Professor in Physiotherapy, and lead for the Centre for Health and Rehabilitation Technologies (CHaRT) School of Health Sciences, Ulster University, Northern Ireland. She leads research focused on the health and rehabilitation of people after critical Illness and people with respiratory conditions. She has expertise with a range of research methodologies and is involved in several multi-centre research programmes funded by the NIHR and is the Chief Investigator of the NIHR HTA funded iRehab trial (NIHR 132871)

Professor Marlies Ostermann

ICS Director of Research, Consultant Intensivist and Nephrology, ESICM President-elect, UK

Marlies is a Consultant in Critical Care & Nephrology at Guy’s & St. Thomas’ Foundation Trust, London and Honorary Senior Lecturer at King’s College London.

Following medical school in Goettingen (Germany), she completed her postgraduate training in the United Kingdom and Canada. She is one of the Directors of Research at the Intensive Care Society, and actively involved in the Renal Association. She is Deputy Chair of the AKI working group of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.

Her clinical and research interests include acute kidney injury in the critically ill, including biomarkers and long-term complications, and all aspects related to acute renal replacement therapy.

: @MarliesOsterman

Jack Parry-Jones

Consultant Intensivist and Vice Dean, FICM

I am a consultant in adult ICM in Cardiff; a large intensive care service including major trauma, neuro-critical care, CAR T therapies, and Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OOHCA). I have an interest in long-term complex intensive care patients, rehabilitation and intensive care follow up services.

I trained in medicine, anaesthesia, and ICM but have only worked in ICM since 2002. I am committed to the development of ICM as speciality in its own right and to a College of Intensive Care Medicine (CICM). The keys to CICM lie in our members, with our commitment to education, examinations, advocacy, career long support, our professional standing with other specialities, research, development of standards and developing good strong relationships with other Colleges and professional Societies.

Professor Natalie Pattison

Professor of Clinical Nursing, University of Hertfordshire

Professor Natalie Pattison is a clinical academic who has worked clinically in cancer, critical care and critical care outreach. She is a Professor of Clinical Nursing with a joint appointment across the University of Hertfordshire and East and North Herts NHS Trust. Natalie also holds a Researcher in Residence (ICU) position at Imperial College London, working in the CATO team, with an honorary contract with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. She is the clinical lead for critical care follow-up services, combining this with a research role. Her research interests focus on her clinical area of critical care and critically ill ward patients, end of life in critical care, and disability in critical care. She is widely published in critical care supportive care.  She is Chair of the National Outreach Forum, immediate past-Chair of UK Critical Care Research Group, and the UK Critical Care Nursing Alliance. She is also Deputy Lead for the National Institute for Health Research National Specialty Group for Critical Care.

: @drnatpat

Professor Susanna Price

Consultant Cardiologist & Intensivist, Royal Brompton Hospital

Professor Susanna Price trained at King's College London, and continued training in cardiology and intensive care medicine at a number of centres, including St Thomas', St George's and Royal Brompton hospitals, London. During her cardiology training, she undertook a fellowship in echocardiography at the Thoraxcenter, Rotterdam and on completion of her training, she was awarded the Jill Dando GUCH fellowship, allowing her to train for a further two years in imaging and management of the critically ill grown-up congenital heart disease (GUCH) patients. 

She has extensive expertise in critical care cardiology, including extracorporeal support and adult congenital heart disease, as well as echocardiography for valvular heart disease and intensive care/peri-procedural transoesophageal echocardiogram.

Professor Price is Chair of the Pan-London Cardiogenic Shock Board, NHS London, aiming to improve survival of patients with cardiogenic shock. She is Vice President of the European Society of Cardiology,  sits on the on the global ELSO board of directors,  is a member of ECMONet, as well as a WHO advisor for acute cardiovascular disease, and a Deputy Editor of the European Heart Journal. She received Honorary Membership of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) for her exceptional contribution to the ESICM and the speciality of intensive care medicine over a prolonged period. 

Professor Louise Rose

Professor of Critical Care Nursing, King’s College London

Professor Louise Rose, RN, PhD is a Professor of Critical Care Nursing at King’s College London, UK and an honorary Professor in Critical Care and the Lane Fox Respiratory Unit at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. Prior to joining King’s she was an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. Her research program focuses on improving outcomes and the healthcare experience of mechanically ventilated patients across the care continuum from the emergency department, intensive care unit, specialised weaning centre and in the home. She also has extensive clinical experience in critical care in four countries. Since commencing her research career she has been awarded 90 peer reviewed research grants and has over 180 peer reviewed publications.

Kordo Saeed

Consultant Clinical Microbiologist, University Hospitals Southampton NHS Trust

He is the clinical lead for the implementation of respiratory metagenomics in the critical care at the University Hospital Southampton. Currently working as a consultant clinical microbiologist and lead for the bacteriology laboratory at University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust & an honorary associate professor at the University of Southampton School of Medicine. His interests are infections in intensive care and orthospinal & major trauma-related infections.  He is the chair of the Rapid Diagnostics and Biomarker Working Group of the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC) and the secretary for the Bone and Joint Infection Working Group. He has published on Infection Control, Antibiotic Stewardship, Bone and Joint Infections and sepsis.

Sara Scott

Consultant Intensivist, Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Sara graduated from Queen’s University, then moved to the North East of England for her postgraduate training. She was elected onto the Trainee Professional Advisory Group in 2019. She has CCT’d in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia in April this year and has recently taken up a consultant post at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead.C

Sara has an interest in medical education and multi-disciplinary learning and sits on the ICS Education Subcommittee. Locally, she sits on the Anaesthesia Learning in the North East (A-LiNE) Executive and is on the faculty for a number of exam preparation courses. Clinically Sara has interests in care of the critically ill obstetric patient and transfer medicine

Professor Charlotte Summers

Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, University of Cambridge

Charlotte graduated in both Biomedical Sciences and Medicine from the University of Southampton, and later undertook a PhD at the University of Cambridge investigating the role of inflammation on the pulmonary transit kinetics of human neutrophils, alongside specialist clinical training in Respiratory (East of England) and Intensive Care Medicine (London).  She was subsequently appointed as the UK’s first NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Intensive Care Medicine, and went on to be awarded a Fulbright All-disciplines Scholar Award and a Wellcome Trust Fellowship for Postdoctoral Clinician Scientists.  Charlotte joined the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine in 2015 from University of California, San Francisco.

: @charlot_summers

Ema Swingwood

Consultant Physiotherapist, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust

Ema is a Consultant Therapist (Physiotherapist by background) in Critical Care at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. Her area of clinical expertise and interest is ventilation, weaning and complex airway clearance. 

Having completed the Advanced Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy Msc programme at University College London (UCL) in 2012, Ema has continued her research focusing on the use of Mechanical Insufflation-Exsufflation (MI-E) and other cough augmentation strategies. Her current PhD work focuses on the use of MI-E in the intubated population which is funded through the NIHR Clinical Academic Research Fellowship pathway. 

Extra-curricular activities include contributions to the Undergraduate Physiotherapy programme at the University of the West of England, and post-graduate teachings at University College London and Brunel University. She sits on the Intensive Care Society Physiotherapy Professional Advisory Group and Education Committee, the Equity, Diversity and Belonging Committee of the CSP, and ICUsteps support group network. She has been part of the multi-professional authorship for BTS/ICS documents related to Respiratory Support Units and Weaning Centres. Most recently, she is part of the NHSElect working group for the development of a Critical Care Capability Framework.

: @emaroids1

Ella Terblanche

Critical Care Dietitian and PhD Research Student, Health Sciences University

Ella is a critical care dietitian, researcher, and strategic workforce leader with extensive clinical, academic, and national leadership experience across the NHS. She was honoured with an MBE in 2021 for services to critical care dietetics, recognising her sustained contribution to advancing practice, leadership, and professional standards.

She was the professional lead for dietetics for NHS Elect/ ICS AHP Critical Care Capability Framework and most recently is a project lead for the British Dietetic Association’s workforce programme. She is pursuing a PhD focused on improving nutritional recovery after critical illness, has contributed to multiple national publications, and has served as an investigator on NIHR multicentre portfolio studies.

Rob Tobin

Partner, Kennedys Law

Rob leads Kennedys’ healthcare team in Cambridge. He advises NHS Trusts on healthcare law, medical negligence litigation, end of life decisions, judicial reviews, consent and capacity to treatment, inquests and mental health and capacity law. Working with NHS Resolution he manages a team of lawyers working on clinical negligence claims of the utmost severity, including cerebral palsy, neurological injuries, neonatal deaths and psychiatric injuries. He has a specialist practice in medical treatment cases involving declarations to treat and withdrawal of treatment and lectures on these topics. He is legal advisor to the Intensive Care Society’s LEAG and to Thrive LDN, a mental health taskforce.  He sits on the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust clinical ethics advisory group. During the pandemic, Rob actively advised the ICS and the National Executive Critical Care Committee. Rob’s recent high profile cases include: AH v Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (2021) – obtaining a declaration to withdraw ventilation from a 56 year old, described as “the most complex COVID patient in the world” and Tafida Raqeeb v Barts Health NHS Trust and others (2019) – complex Judicial Review and treatment case concerning withdrawal of life sustaining treatment for 5 year old Muslim child.

Zoe Van Willigen

Critical Care Physiotherapist, University Hospital Southampton Foundation Trust

Zoe van Willigen is a Critical Care Physiotherapist with almost twenty years’ experience in the speciality. She has led the Early Mobilisation Project on intensive care (ICU) in Southampton since 2012, which is estimated to have saved her NHS trust over £2.5million. Zoe has conducted and published research into the family and patient experience of rehabilitation on ICU, leading to a number of pilot projects to address the provision of services throughout the ICU recovery pathway. Zoe is chair of the Thames Valley and Wessex Critical Care Network’s rehabilitation group and has also recently been employed by ICUSteps to lead national online rehabilitation classes for former ICU patients. Zoe holds one of only 10 physiotherapy professional advisory group seats for the Intensive Care Society and is also on the specialist advisory group for the current NCEPOD trial into rehabilitation after critical illness.

Sarah Vollam

Senior Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of Oxford Critical Care Research Group

Sarah is a Senior Post-Doctoral Researcher in the University of Oxford Critical Care Research Group. She co-leads the NIHR-funded Enhanced Recovery After Critical Care (ERACC) programme of research, aiming to design and test an enhanced care pathway for critical care survivors. 

Sarah has a clinical ICU nursing background. She is an outgoing Associate Editor for Nursing in Critical Care and Deputy Chair of the Intensive Care Society's National Rehabilitation Collaborative. She is also a Visiting Fellow at Oxford Brookes University.

Dr Jonny Wilkinson

Consultant Intensivist and Anaesthetist, 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