Associate Professor Alana Flexman is an anesthesiologist at St. Paul’s Hospital/Providence Health Care; a Clinical Associate Professor in the UBC Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics; and an affiliated scientist with the Centre for Advancing Health Outcomes at St. Paul’s Hospital.

After finishing anaesthesia residency at UBC, she completed a fellowship in neuroanaesthesia at the University of California, San Francisco. More recently, she completed a Master of Business Administration in Health Care at the University of Toronto. Dr Flexman is a past-president of the Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care, and the editor of the Journal for Neurosurgical Anesthesiology.

Dr Flexman’s interests include perioperative stroke and brain health, equity in medicine, and health systems research.

Eugenie Kayak, FANZCA, MBBS, MSc, MPH (health economics) is the Enterprise Professor in Sustainable Healthcare at the Melbourne Medical School and consultant anaesthetist in public and private practice.

Professor Kayak has worked with Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA), ANZCA, the AMA, government and the wider medical profession for over a decade, to raise awareness of, influence policy and address the health impacts of climate change and environmental degradation – including healthcare’s own impact.

She was a member of the Chief Medical Officer Advisory Group for Australia’s National Health and Climate Strategy, is Deputy Director of The University of Melbourne Climate CATCH (Collaborative Action for Transformative Change in Health and Healthcare) Lab, Co-Convenor of Sustainable Healthcare for DEA and Deputy Chair of ANZCA’s Environmental Sustainability Network.

Work with the AMA has resulted in a collaboration calling for the Australian healthcare sector to be net zero carbon emissions by 2040 and engagement of Australia’s medical colleges to advocate for action from government and the health sector.

Professor Kevin Fong is a consultant anaesthetist at University College London Hospital (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 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 the 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.

Associate Professor Chris Connor is the Vice Chair for Research ad interim for the Department of Anesthesiology at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and a practicing anesthesiologist with a particular interest in neuroanesthesia. He completed his MD/PhD at MIT and Harvard Medical School, specialising in biomedical engineering and biomedical physics. His PhD dealt with focusing high intensity ultrasound through the intact skull to ablate brain tumours non-invasively; a technology first used clinically at Brigham & Women’s Hospital for nonsurgical treatment of uterine fibroids and now used today to treat movement disorders by noninvasive pallidotomy.

Associate Professor Connor received his first NIH R01 award in September 2017 and recently has been awarded a five-year R35 Maximizing Investigator Research Award. His main research focus is on the most longstanding anaesthesia question of them all: the mechanism of action of the volatile anaesthetics in suspending consciousness. To this end, he induces anaesthesia in C. elegans and records their neuronal function using genetically modified fluorescent markers. A renowned technologist, he has recently published a controversial sequence of papers exposing the inner workings of the BIS monitor.

Professor Nadine Attal is the Professor of Pain Medicine and Therapeutics and Associate Director of the INSERM U 987 research unit headed by Didier Bouhassira. Professor Attal has played a leading role in translational pain research, including the development with Didier Bouhassira of questionnaires such as the DN4, which are widely used around the world, and the coordination of many therapeutic studies and international guidelines on neuropathic pain.

She has published more than 180 articles in international journals such as Lancet Neurology, Annals of Neurology, Neurology, Brain and Pain (H index: 64). Professor Attal was knighted in 2016 and has received several prestigious scientific prizes and awards.

Professor Finley is a pediatric anesthesiologist who has worked for over 30 years in pain research and management. He is Professor of Anaesthesia, Pain Management, & Perioperative Medicine at Dalhousie University, and is cross-appointed as Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience. He also holds the inaugural Dr. Stewart Wenning Chair in Pediatric Pain Management at IWK Health in Halifax and is Director of the Centre for Pediatric Pain Research. Dr Finley has published more than 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has lectured widely, with 330 invited presentations on six continents.

He started the PEDIATRIC-PAIN e-mail discussion list in 1993, bringing together pain researchers and clinicians from over 40 countries. His own research and educational projects have taken him to Jordan, Thailand, China, Brazil, and elsewhere. His main interest is pain service development and advocacy for improved pain care for children around the world. To facilitate that, he is co-founder and Board member of the ChildKind International Initiative. Dr Finley was also a member of the Canadian Health Standards Organization Pediatric Pain Management Working Group, that developed the first ever national hospital standard for children’s pain care in 2023.

His current research includes broad collaborations with Canadian colleagues at Dalhousie University and the Universities of Ottawa, Calgary, and Manitoba. He has been a co-I of the CIHR SPOR Chronic Pain Network and is currently part of the European IN-ChildPain Network.

In 2016, Dr Finley was elected to the Executive of the International Association for the Study of Pain as Treasurer and has recently served as Councillor, an exciting opportunity to be part of the promotion of pain science and pain care around the world. In that role he serves as co-Chair of the Global Advocacy Working Group.

Dr Eloise Cowie is a Senior Clinical Psychologist working in a paediatric interdisciplinary persistent pain service, and with a background of working in child and youth mental health. Eloise is also currently a project officer, with an Office of the Chief Allied Health Officer (OCAHO) funded model of care project focusing on networking and partnering with services to improve paediatric persistent pain care delivery in regional Queensland. The project initiatives aim to bridge gaps in healthcare access, ensuring that staff in regional areas feel supported to provide individualised and developmentally sensitive care to young people with persistent pain. Eloise is passionate about advancing collaborative approaches that enhance service provision. She actively engages in research and clinical supervision to promote understanding and awareness of persistent pain in paediatric populations.

Dr Liz Crowe is a staff wellbeing specialist. Liz worked for more than 20 years in paediatric intensive care specialising in crisis, trauma, grief and end-of-life care with children and families. In the last decade Liz has expanded her expertise to include research and clinical work on the wellbeing of health care professionals. Staff wellbeing was the focus of her PhD and she currently works for the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in staff wellbeing and as a private consultant.

Since 2021 Liz has also worked for ANZCA and authored the critical incident debriefing toolkit. Liz is a passionate and humorous educator and podcaster who regularly speaks internationally. Liz is the successful author of ‘The Little Book of Loss and Grief You Can Read While You Cry’ and the co-host of the nursing podcast ‘Five Things Nursing’.

Dr Simon Davies is a Clinical Academic where he is a Reader in Perioperative Medicine at the Centre for Health and Population Sciences at the University of York, and a Honorary Consultant in Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at York Teaching Hospitals since 2010. Clinical duties include anaesthesia for major general and vascular surgery, preoperative cardiopulmonary exercise testing, and he started one of the first perioperative medicine services in the UK, along with his colleague Dr David Yates (https://www.yorkperioperativemedicine.nhs.uk)

His research interests remain varied but focus on the perioperative period, including the use of machine learning in the prediction of perioperative outcomes, use and implementation of haemodynamic monitoring, and the inflammatory response to both exercise and surgery, specifically chemokine and cytokine expression. In addition, he works on the NIHR funded MEASURE study examining the cost effectiveness of High-Volume Low Complexity surgical hubs on reducing waiting times in NHS England.

He is the academic anaesthetic lead for the East Yorkshire and the Humber region and has supervised various postgraduate students over the years.

Dr Nicki Ferencz is an experienced clinical psychologist and the service lead of the Women’s and Children’s Paediatric Chronic Pain Service. This service includes a multidisciplinary team who provide interdisciplinary care for young people with chronic pain. Dr Ferencz has extensive experience working with patients with complex health issues in both the UK and South Australia and she played an integral role in implementing the research-evaluated and highly regarded Comfort Ability Program in Adelaide. This program, widely operational throughout the US, is now a first-line response in assisting young people with ongoing pain in all hospitals in Canada. Since its implementation at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Australia, it has also been adopted in WA and Queensland Paediatric Chronic Pain Services.

Dr Trina Kellar is a neurogastroenterologist residing in Brisbane, Australia. After completing fellowships in oesophageal physiology, anorectal physiology, and complex functional gut disorders in Australia’s leading centres, Trina established the NeuroGastroenterology service at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, and co-founded the Qld Pelvic Floor Centre. Trina’s research interests include eating disorders, gastro-psychology, and gastroduodenal dysfunction.

Professor Ramani Moonesinghe is professor of perioperative medicine at UCL and honorary consultant in anaesthesia, perioperative and critical care medicine at UCL Hospitals. She holds several national leadership roles including as National Clinical Director for Critical and Perioperative Care at NHS England and Deputy Chair of the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia. She is the inaugural director of the NIHR Central London Patient Safety Research Collaboration and theme lead for the Critical and Perioperative Care theme of the UCLH Biomedical Research Centre (one of only two nationally).

She was previously director of the Health Services Research Centre at the Royal College of Anaesthetists and a council member for four years. She was also advisor on academic training to the National Institute for Academic Anaesthesia (seven years).

Her research focuses on developing and evaluating novel technologies and pathways, risk prediction and outcome measurement, and improvement studies focusing on perioperative and critical care. Although her research is predominantly UK based, she is also involved with projects internationally, including several in low- and middle-income settings. Studies which she leads have recruited more than 90,000 participants to the NIHR portfolio.

Her work at UCL includes setting strategic direction for the Centre for Perioperative Medicine and the Research Dept for Targeted Intervention and supporting her own research group which currently includes 13 doctoral students.

In her role for NHS England, Ramani clinically led the national critical care response to Covid. She continues clinical strategic leadership for critical care, and also for the perioperative/anaesthesia aspect of the recovery of elective services. She was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 Queen’s New Year’s Honours for service to anaesthesia, perioperative and critical care.

Dr Katie Thorne is a consultant geriatrician working in perioperative medicine in Wellington, New Zealand. She is involved in the CHRiSP (Complex High Risk Surgical Patient) team as well as running a POPS (Perioperative Older Persons) co-management team covering vascular, general surgical and cardio-thoracic inpatients.
In her life outside the hospital she enjoys biking, reading and making memories with her two young boys.

Dr Sav Zwickl (they/them) is a Research Fellow with the Trans Health Research Group, based in the Department of Medicine (Austin Health), at The University of Melbourne. As a trans person, Zwickl’s lived expertise and strong community connections inform all their research and their passion for community co-designed and trans-led research.

Since its conceptualisation in 2019, Zwickl has led the TRANSform project, growing it to be the largest ever longitudinal study of the health and wellbeing of trans adults in Australia. TRANSform has covered a range of trans health topics, including social determinants of trans mental health, pain experiences in the trans community, barriers to healthcare access, and healthcare discrimination.

Zwickl prioritises research communication, stakeholder engagement and community access to research. They have presented their research to policymakers and community leaders, ranging from to the House of Representatives Parliamentary Select Committee on Suicide Prevention and Mental Health, to the International Olympic Committee, contributing to policy change, State Government investment in trans health, and treatment guidelines.
Zwickl currently serves on the Research Committee and was formerly a director of the Australian Professional Association of Trans Health.

Hugh C. Hemmings, Jr., MD, PhD, FRCA

Dr Hugh Hemmings is the Joseph F. Artusio Jr. Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, Professor of Pharmacology, and Senior Associate Dean for Research at Weill Cornell Medicine and Anesthesiologist-in-Chief of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He works closely with the dean of Weill Cornell Medicine to set research priorities and strategy in leading the Office of the Research Dean, which supports basic science and clinical endeavors and facilitates translational work that bridges the gap from bench to bedside.

Dr Hemmings is an expert in the neuropharmacology of general anesthesia and has helped pioneer the study of how anaesthetics work at the molecular and cellular levels. He continues to investigate the mechanisms of general anaesthetic effects on synaptic transmission, the transmission of signals across synapses between neurons. His current work includes functional and structural studies on isolated neurons and voltage-gated ion channels. His clinical practice is devoted to thoracic anesthesiology.

After receiving his undergraduate, medical and doctoral degrees from Yale University, he conducted postdoctoral research in molecular and cellular neuroscience at The Rockefeller University and completed a residency in anaesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as a fellowship in cardiac anaesthesia at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Since joining the faculty of Weill Cornell Medicine in 1991, he directed the anesthesiology research program starting in 1995 and was named chair of the Department of Anesthesiology in 2013, and subsequently Senior Associate Dean for Research in 2017.

His honors include membership in the National Academy of Medicine and the Association of University Anesthesiologists, and election as a fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (UK). He currently serves as editor-in-chief of the British Journal of Anaesthesia. He has authored more than 250 publications in anesthesiology and neuroscience, and has co-edited four textbooks on anesthesiology, including Physiology and Pharmacology for Anesthesia, reflecting his early roots in the specialty.

Dr Laszlo Vutskits, MD, PhD, is the Head of Pediatric Anesthesia at the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Intensive Care at the University Hospitals of Geneva. He is also an Executive Editor for Anesthesiology. Dr Vutskits received his medical degree from the Semmelweis University of Medicine in Budapest, Hungary. He then completed a PhD in the field of developmental neurobiology at the University of Geneva Medical School followed by an anaesthesiology residency at the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Intensive Care at the University Hospitals of Geneva. After his residency training, he turned toward a specialisation in paediatric anaesthesia. His principal clinical interest is on the effects of the perioperative period on postoperative behavioral and cognitive outcome in children.

Dr Matthew Wiles.
Consultant Anaesthetist, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Honorary Fellow, Centre for Applied Health & Social Care Research (CARe), Sheffield Hallam University
Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, University of Sheffield

Matt Wiles completed anaesthetic training in Nottingham in conjunction with a research post as a Clinical Lecturer at the University of Nottingham, before taking a consultant post at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. His clinical commitments primarily involve sessions in neuroanaesthesia (with a particular interest in traumatic brain and spinal cord injury), critical care and major trauma. He is Trust Clinical Lead for the Major Trauma service. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Anaesthesia (top-rated in the field of anesthesiology) and is an active researcher, regularly publishing in peer-reviewed journals. He has also authored two major anaesthetic textbooks.