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

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

Katie Nurcombe

Chief Executive Officer, Intensive Care Society

Katie is the CEO for the Intensive Care Society (ICS) and has a wealth of experience leading membership growth and transformational change.  Over her career she has led trade associations, membership organisations and public-private partnerships, and has worked in a variety of sectors including local growth, construction, skills and healthcare.  Prior to the ICS she was CEO at ENT UK, the surgical association for Ear, Nose, Throat and Head and Neck surgeons. She has a passion for corporate social responsibility, and is an active champion of wellbeing as well as equity, diversity and inclusion.

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 Ema Swingwood OBE

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