Speakers
Professor Kevin Fong
Professor Ramani Moonesinghe OBE
Dr Jack Parry-Jones
Professor Marlies Ostermann
Plenary
Our Opening Plenary will be led by Kevin Fong, launching the Congress with insight, curiosity and big ideas. He’ll then be joined by leaders from the Intensive Care Society (ICS), Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM) and European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) for a live, chaired discussion with Ramani Moonesinghe.
Together, they’ll tackle the uncomfortable questions, explore the toughest challenges, and look ahead to what the future holds for intensive care.
Chair: Prof Ramani Moonesinghe OBE
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.
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.
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.
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.
:
www.ics.ac.uk
:
@shond3