Dr. Thomas E. Stewart (Toronto, Canada) is Associate Professor of Medicine and Anaesthesiology at the University of Toronto. He is also Director of Critical Care Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and the University Health Network (Toronto General, Toronto Western and Princess Margaret Hospitals) in Toronto. Dr. Stewart is physician lead and advisor to the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care on efforts to transform critical care medicine in Ontario. He is director of the International Collaboration for Excellence in Critical Care Medicine which is focused on teaching leadership skills to clinicians. He received his medical degree with honours from the University of Ottawa (1988). Dr. Stewart completed residencies in internal medicine and critical care medicine at the University of Toronto.
He has received multiple honours and awards. Dr. Stewart’s research focuses include ARDS and ALI, Lung Protective modes of mechanical ventilation, unconventional approaches to mechanical ventilation, critical care medicine networks, leadership skills and implementing change. He has published more than 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 15 book chapters. Dr. Stewart has also presented at more than 260 invited lectures nationally and internationally.
Dr. Naill Ferguson (Toronto, Canada) is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, a Scientist in the Toronto Western Research Institute, and Director of Critical Care at Mount Sinai Hospital and the University Health Network. He received his M.D. with honours from the University of Toronto in 1995, and went on to complete post-graduate training in Internal Medicine, Respirology, and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Ferguson completed a Master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research at the University of Toronto in 2002, and subsequently undertook a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Canadian Lung Association Post-doctoral Fellowship in Madrid, Spain.
Dr Ferguson receives research funding from local, provincial, and national agencies, and is currently supported by a CIHR New Investigator Award.
His current research interests include: (1) mechanical ventilation (epidemiology; weaning and liberation; extubation and tracheostomy); (2) acute respiratory distress syndrome (definitions; ventilatory management; trial design); and (3) high-frequency oscillatory ventilation, where he is the co-Principal Investigator of a CIHR-funded international RCT.
Dr. Ferguson is the Scientific Programme Chair for Critical Care Canada Forum (www.criticalcarecanada.com), and is Critical Care Assembly Chair-Elect for the American Thoracic Society International Conference.
Joseph Varon, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.C.C.P. (CV ) is a Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine and Professor of Acute and Continuing Care at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, Texas and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
He is also Professor of Medicine, Surgery and Professor of Emergency Medicine at several universities in Mexico. After completing medical training at the UNAM Medical School in Mexico City, Mexico, Dr. Varon served as internship in internal medicine at Providence Hospital/George Washington University, Washington, D.C. A subsequent residency in internal medicine was completed at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California. Dr. Varon also served fellowships in critical care medicine and pulmonary diseases at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
An avid researcher, Dr, Varon has contributed more than 510 peer-reviewed journal articles, 9 full textbooks, and 8 dozen book chapters to the medical literature. He is also a reviewer for multiple journals and currently serves as Editor-in-Chief for Critical Care and Shock and Current Respiratory Medicine Reviews.
Dr. Varon has won many prestigious awards and is considered among one of the top physicians in the United States. Dr. Varon is also known for his groundbreaking contributions to Critical Care Medicine in the fields of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and therapeutic hypothermia. He has developed and studied technology for selective brain cooling. He is a known expert in the area of hypertensive crises management. With Dr. Carlos Ayus, he co-described the hyponatremia associated to extreme exercise syndrome also known as the “Varon-Ayus syndrome”.
Dr. Varon has lectured in over 52 different countries around the globe. Dr. Varon has appeared in National and International television and radio shows with his techniques and care of patients. Dr. Varon is well known for his academic and clinical work in the management of acute hypertension and has published extensively on this subject.
Professor David James Cooper was the inaugural chair of the ANZIC-RC and one of the Enabling Grant Chief Investigators. He is the Director of the ANZIC-RC, Deputy Director of Intensive Care at the Alfred Hospital and Associate Director of the National Trauma Research Institute. Professor Cooper was Chief Investigator on a multi-centre randomised clinical trial of 229 patients over 5 years published in JAMA; was involved in the design and execution of a large randomised trial published in NEJM; and is currently Chief Investigator on a 4 year tri-national ICU and neurosurgical randomised single blind surgical trial including 16 sites and 210 patients. He has established research collaborations, and is a member of the International Executive Committees for current randomised trials with critical care trialists in both Western and Eastern Canada (VASST, LOVS and PROTECT). He has received more than $15 million in research grant funding.
Professor Andrès Esteban, MD, PhD
Dr. Andrés Esteban has been for 17 years the Head of the Intensive Care at the Hospital Universitario de Getafe in Madrid.
He holds a PhD in Medicine from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad del Desarrollo in Santiago de Chile and honorary professor of the Faculty of Medicine, University of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay.
In his role as a researcher at the Health Institute Carlos he was coordinator of the Red Centre Tour and coordinator of the Red Respira from 2003 to 2006 and is currently Group Leader in the CIBER of Respiratory Diseases where he works coordinating corporate projects that take place within it. Dr. Esteban’s work has centered around on the multifaceted problem of Acute Respiratory Distress. He has also been principal investigator on 23 projects funded by public and private agencies and has participated in four conferences of consensus on respiratory disease (ARDS, Weaning, Care at the End of the life, Acute Lung Injury in Animal Models).
Dr. Esteban has published 132 research articles, 185 communications in national and international conferences and given over 300 lectures. He is a reviewer of various journals in his specialty of national and international level (Critical Care Med, NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, BMJ, Intensive Care Med ....)
Other honors include; appointment as Partner of Merit from the Academy of Sciences medicate de Catalunya i de Balears, corresponding member of the Societies of Intensive Care Colombian, Cuban, Chilean and Argentina, and honorary member of the Spanish Society of Intensive Care Medicine and Coronary Units.
Professor Charles David Gomersall (Hong Kong)
Associate Professor, Dept of Anaesthesia & Intensive Care
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Dr. Gomersall trained in medicine and anaesthesia in London and in Intensive Care in Hong Kong. His research interests include triage, antibiotic pharmacokinetics, probiotics and respiratory protection and an enforced interest in respiratory epidemics. Dr. Gomersall is the editor of ICU web , which is a free access Internet website. He is also the co-author of the BASIC and Very BASIC courses for junior trainees and medical students.
Professor Konrad Reinhart (Germany)
Professor Konrad Reinhart is director of department Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the University Hospital of the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena. He gained his medical degree from the Free University of Berlin. For his habilitation dissertation he was awarded with the Carl Ludwig Schleich Prize in 1985.
Professor Reinhart's research activities includes sepsis oxygen transport, tissue oxygenation, with the focus on diagnosis and therapy of sepsis.
He is editor of numerous scientific articles in books and journals. The international ranking list of the journal Respiratory Care, 2004; 49(3) 276-281 shows him on 6th place, considered the number of his publications. As the most cited German scientist in the field of intensive care medicine he ranks 13th.
Konrad Reinhart is member of the Section "Sepsis" of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, founding president of the German Sepsis Society e.V. and speaker of public founded research network SepNet as well. Since 2002 he has been serving as Chairman of the section Intensive Care Medicine of the German Society of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine (DGAI).
INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS (PEDIATRICS)
Professor Kissoon currently holds the positions of Vice President, Medical Affairs at BC Children’s Hospital and Associate Head and Professor, Department of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia. Prior to this position he served as Director of the Pediatric Critical Care Unit and Research and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Florida (1992-2004).
Dr. Niranjan Kissoon completed his medical studies at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, graduating in 1978. Residencies followed in Pediatrics at the University of Calgary (1982) and then Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto (1984). He is the associate editor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine and is a member of the editorial board of nine other journals. He is a peer reviewer for over two dozen journals and is the recipient of several teaching and research awards and has been a visiting professor at more 54 institutions around the world.
Dr. Kissoon’s background in both pediatric emergency and pediatric critical care has afforded him unique insight into the overall delivery of care for critically ill children. He is a recognized expert in the field of pediatric emergency and pediatric critical care and has contributed to over 200 peer reviewed publications as well as authored over 50 book chapters pertaining to pediatric emergency and/or pediatric critical care medicine. His international work has included work in China, India, Brazil and Africa, often in areas of vulnerability for the critically ill child and areas with limited resources. This international work will continue and extend as he currently has moved into the role of President-Elect of the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies (WFPICCS).
Some of Dr. Kissoon’s current research interests include: resuscitation, sepsis and septic shock. To that end, Dr. Kissoon and his colleagues have developed a global sepsis initiative by creating and maintaining a pediatric sepsis website (www.pediatricsepsis.org) with worldwide members. This website provides sepsis guidelines and videos; a sepsis forum where members can discuss cases and issues online; and a sepsis bundle registry to help eradicate sepsis around the world.
Professor Mohan R. Mysore
Professor of Pediatrics, University of Nebraska College of Medicine
Director/Clinical Service Chief
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
Children’s Hospital & Medical Center
Omaha, USA
Professor Said Hachimi-Idrissi
Professor Saïd Hachimi-Idrissi received his Bachelor in Natural Sciences degree in Morocco in 1979. He obtained his Medical Doctor degree with Great Distinction at the Université Catholique de Louvain in Brussels in 1987, and his Ph.D. degree with dissertation entitled “Experimental and clinical studies on the neurological outcome after cardiopulmonary arrest” at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium in 2002. In addition to special competence in disaster medicine (1994), he obtained board certification in pediatrics (1994), emergency medicine (1995), neonatal care medicine (1997) and intensive care medicine (2005).
Prior to becoming Professor in Pediatric and Critical Care Medicine in 2005, Professor Idrissi obtained Fellowship at Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research, at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, and has also been active as European Instructor of Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Pediatric Life Support. He also lectured and worked as Assistant Professor at the Free University in Brussels Faculty of Medicine, as well as Director of medicolegal aspects at that institution. He is also Vice President of the Educative Program in the Master for nurses and midwives since 2006.
Professor Idrissi has published clinical studies extensively in peer-reviewed international publications, as well as acted as reviewer to the European Journal of Emergency Medicine since 1999. Professor Idrissi is well established on the international lecture circuit as moderator and speaker in numerous international critical and intensive care meetings over the past two decades.
INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS
(Endorsed by PAN-ARAB, Sponsored by SCCS)
Dr. Edgar J. Jimenez (Orlando, FL, USA)
In the past, he co-developed the Emergency Medical System (EMS) in Costa Rica, and worked as Chief Medical Advisor for the US Dept. of State, US Agency for International Development (US AID), Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), where he was also an International consultant on Mass Casualty Incidents for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Red Cross.
In the United States of America, he is dedicated to teaching and research and the development of programs with the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) such as, the Fundamental Critical Care Support course (FCCS), the Fundamental Disaster Management (FDM), ICU-USA, all well recognized nationally and internationally. He has been author and editor of several publications in the area Critical Care, mainly with SCCM.
Dr. Amal Jubran (Maywood, IL, USA)
Dr. Jubran is a physician in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Section at Hines VA Hospital. She also holds an appointment as Assistant Professor of Medicine at Loyola University Medical Center.
Dr. Jubran’s major interests in research include pulmonary physiology, patient ventilatory interactions, and control of breathing. She has conducted many clinical trial research studies that test new pharmaceuticals to treat lung diseases such as bronchitis, community-acquired pneumonia, and COPD.
Dr. Jubran has authored more than 40 journal articles.
Dr. Abdo Khoury
Besancon, France
Dr. Oliver Joannes-Boyau (Bordeaux, France)
Dr. Joannes-Boyau is a full-time clinician in a 12 bed intensive care unit in a tertiary university hospital in Bordeaux (France). He has worked in the field of hemofiltration for about 8 years and conducted studies on sepsis and CRRT and is a senior consultant for organ support therapies. Dr. Joannes-Boyau is the coordinator of the IVOIRE study, set-up with Dr Patrick Honoré, which is a randomized multicentric and multinational study (20 centers in 3 countries for the moment) comparing the adequate dose of hemofiltration (35 ml/kg/h versus 70 ml/kg/h) in septic shock plus acute renal injury by evaluating the 28 and 90 days mortality between both groups (currently in progress).
Dr. Joannes-Boyau has been a faculty member and has provided lectures in several national and international congresses in the past years. He is a member of the European society of intensive care and the French society of anesthesiology. Dr. Joannes-Boyau has produced or participated in the production of some book chapters and articles in national and international journals.
Dr. Marie Roseanne Baldiserri (Pitsburgh, PA, USA)
Dr. Marie R. Baldisseri is a board-certified physician in Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine. She completed her fellowship training in Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and then remained on faculty in the Department of Critical Care Medicine where she is a Professor of Critical Care Medicine. She is actively involved in many aspects of health improvement and patient safety. She has lectured locally, nationally, and internationally on Rapid Response Systems and many other critical care topics. She is the past chair of the FCCS (Fundamentals of Critical Care Support) committee of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. She is actively involved in disaster management has traveled extensively teaching and responding to international natural disasters and humanitarian crises.
Alexander Razumovsky, Ph.D., F.A.H.A. (Mariland, USA)
Dr. Alexander Razumovsky, a graduate of the Tbilisi State University (Tbilisi, Georgia - Former USSR), is the Director of Sentient NeuroCare Services, a subsidiary of Sentient Medical Systems. He holds a doctorate degree in Neurophysiology and a master’s degree in Biophysics. Dr. Razumovsky began his career in the U.S. in 1990 at the Johns Hopkins University where he was founding director of Neurosonology services for the Johns Hopkins hospital. There he held both professorial and research appointments in the departments of Anesthesiology/Critical Care and Neurology. In September of 2002, Dr. Razumovsky left Hopkins to join Sentient Medical Systems with the goal of furthering the clinical applications of neurosonolgy.
Dr. Razumovsky is internationally recognized for his basic and clinical research on the Pathophysiology of Cerebral Blood Flow. He has published more than 50 scientific articles in peer reviewed journals, has authored book chapters, and has been invited to write and review numerous journal articles. From 2001 to 2007 Dr. Razumovsky was appointed to the Board of Directors for the American Society of Neuroimaging. In 2009 he was elected to the Executive Committee of the Neurosonology Research Group of the World Federation of Neurology (NSRG-WFN). He is also currently a Fellow of the American Heart Association, the European Society of Neurosonology and Cerebral Hemodynamics, the Neurosonology Research Group of the World Federation of Neurology, and the International Cerebral Hemodynamics Society. In 2004, Dr. Razumovsky received the John & Sophia Prockop Memorial Lectureship Award for a paper he published in the Journal of Neuroimaging. In 2009 Dr. Razumovsky was honored by the American Society of Neurophysiologic Monitoring when he presented with their award for Scientific Achievement.
Jennifer Zanni (Baltimore, MD, USA)
Jennifer Zanni is a lead physical therapist at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, where she specializes in critical care and the early rehabilitation and mobilization of ICU patients. Her primary interests include improving both short and long-term functional outcomes in survivors of critical illness. For the last three and half years, she has been the lead physical therapist participating in a quality improvement project in the Johns Hopkins Medical ICU with the goals of improving patients’ access to physical medicine and rehabilitation during acute critical illness, as well as actively participating in a randomized clinical trial of the use of neuromuscular electro-stimulation in the prevention of ICU acquired weakness. Jennifer also serves as a lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Krishnan Sriram (Chicago, IL, USA - Sponsored by Abbott)
Dr. Krishnan Sriam studied at Loyola College, University of Madras, Madras, India. Fro Loyola College he went onto Madras Medical College where he obtained a master of science degree in 1974. He completed his residency in General Surgery at Michael Reese Hospital & Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois in 1976. Dr. Sriam finished his medical training at the University of Health Sciences/ Chicago Medical School, North Chicago, Illinois in 1979.
Dr. Sriam is certified by the American Board of Surgery, American Board of Surgery - in Critical Care, American Board of Nutrition, and is a Fellow of Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
Dr. Krishnan Sriam is current chairman & program director of the surgical critical care department at John H Stroger Jr. Hospital in Chicago, Il, He is chief of section of surgical nutrition and director of the nutrition support team.
Jan Stange (San Diego, CA, USA - Sponsored by Vital Therapies, Inc.)
Christian Putensen (Bonn, Germany) Sponsored by Drager Arabia
At four locations in China and Thailand professor Christian Putensen, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University of Bonn, Germany talked about current developments in respiratory care. With over 240 medical professionals professor Putensen discussed topics of recent interest as benefits of spontaneous breathing during mechanical ventilation, whether assisted breathing is better in acute respiratory failure and current developments of automatic weaning protocols.
“Medical professionals benefited from expertise imparted at the tour events in Asia”, emphasized Robert Sun, Marketing Manager, Dräger Asia-Pacific. “The Dräger Respiratory Care Speaker Tour served as an excellent platform for respiratory care professionals to gain exclusive insights into advanced respiratory technologies and therapies. The knowledge gained helps clinical communities to improve general patient outcomes”, added Robert Sun.
Hofer Christof Karl
Zurich, Switzerland
Sponsored by Edwards
Lifesciences
Reza Shahpori has been leading the Information Technology and informatics at the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Calgary Zone, Alberta Health Services, Canada, where he masterminded the evolutionary development of one the world’s most sophisticated and successful Critical Care Clinical Information Management Systems.
He has a M.Sc. in Health Informatics from the University of Victoria, a Bachelor degree in Information Systems and a B.Sc. degree in Radiological Sciences.
Reza is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and has achieved several professional certifications and designations in, data modeling, data standards as well as database design, development and administration.
His project, “VAP surveillance system application”, won the 2007 Canada’s Health Informatics award for Innovation in the Adoption of Health Informatics. He has published several articles and abstracts regarding Critical Care Informatics in journals and conferences around the world.
Dr. Thomas E. Stewart (Toronto, Canada) is Associate Professor of Medicine and Anaesthesiology at the University of Toronto. He is also Director of Critical Care Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and the University Health Network (Toronto General, Toronto Western and Princess Margaret Hospitals) in Toronto. Dr. Stewart is physician lead and advisor to the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care on efforts to transform critical care medicine in Ontario. He is director of the International Collaboration for Excellence in Critical Care Medicine which is focused on teaching leadership skills to clinicians. He received his medical degree with honours from the University of Ottawa (1988). Dr. Stewart completed residencies in internal medicine and critical care medicine at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Naill Ferguson (Toronto, Canada) is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, a Scientist in the Toronto Western Research Institute, and Director of Critical Care at Mount Sinai Hospital and the University Health Network. He received his M.D. with honours from the University of Toronto in 1995, and went on to complete post-graduate training in Internal Medicine, Respirology, and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Ferguson completed a Master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research at the University of Toronto in 2002, and subsequently undertook a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Canadian Lung Association Post-doctoral Fellowship in Madrid, Spain. 
Joseph Varon, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.C.C.P. (
Professor David James Cooper was the inaugural chair of the ANZIC-RC and one of the Enabling Grant Chief Investigators. He is the Director of the ANZIC-RC, Deputy Director of Intensive Care at the Alfred Hospital and Associate Director of the National Trauma Research Institute. Professor Cooper was Chief Investigator on a multi-centre randomised clinical trial of 229 patients over 5 years published in JAMA; was involved in the design and execution of a large randomised trial published in NEJM; and is currently Chief Investigator on a 4 year tri-national ICU and neurosurgical randomised single blind surgical trial including 16 sites and 210 patients. He has established research collaborations, and is a member of the International Executive Committees for current randomised trials with critical care trialists in both Western and Eastern Canada (VASST, LOVS and PROTECT). He has received more than $15 million in research grant funding.
Professor Andrès Esteban, MD, PhD
Professor Konrad Reinhart (Germany)
Professor Kissoon currently holds the positions of Vice President, Medical Affairs at BC Children’s Hospital and Associate Head and Professor, Department of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia. Prior to this position he served as Director of the Pediatric Critical Care Unit and Research and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Florida (1992-2004).
Professor Mohan R. Mysore
Professor Said Hachimi-Idrissi 
Dr. Edgar J. Jimenez (Orlando, FL, USA)
Dr. Amal Jubran (Maywood, IL, USA)
Dr. Abdo Khoury
Dr. Oliver Joannes-Boyau (Bordeaux, France)
Dr. Marie Roseanne Baldiserri (Pitsburgh, PA, USA)
Jennifer Zanni (Baltimore, MD, USA)
Krishnan Sriram (Chicago, IL, USA - Sponsored by Abbott)
Christian Putensen (Bonn, Germany)
Hofer Christof Karl
