SOA Congress 2026 | #SOA26

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

Dr Ned (Edward) Gilbert-Kawai

Consultant Intensivist and Anaesthesia

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.

Professor Shondipon Laha

ICS President and Consultant Intensivist , UK

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 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

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.

Ema Swingwood

Consultant Physiotherapist, UK

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