Scientific Programme
*This is a preliminary programme and is subject to change.
Scientific Programme Committee
Assoc Prof Sophia Chew
SSA President, Singapore
Prof Tony Gin
Hong Kong SAR, China
Dr Carolina Haylock-Loor
Honduras
Prof Christian Werner
Germany
Assoc Prof Ti Lian Kah
Singapore
Access the full Programme day by day
Track Chairs
Ellen O’Sullivan
Position: Co-Chair, Ireland
Categories: Airway Management
Prof Ellen O’Sullivan, FRCA, FCAI, FCPSP (Hon) FCANECSA(Hon)
Professor Ellen O’Sullivan trained in anaesthesia in the UK and USA. She is now a Consultant Anaesthesiologist at St James’s Hospital Dublin. She specializes in airway management and is Director of the Fellowship in Advanced Airway Management and Simulation which has been running for 12 years. She was appointed DAS Professor of Anaesthesia & Airway Management in 2018. She has a substantial portfolio of clinically relevant research and has co-authored more than 140 scientific papers (H-Index 25), book chapters, website modules etc. & has lectured and taught workshops internationally.
She is Past President of the Difficult Airway Society, DAS, and in 2022 she received the DAS Macewan medal for her services to DAS & is now the DAS International liaison officer.
Prof Ellen O’Sullivan held many roles in the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland (CAI) including serving as the CAI President. She is now the CAI Airway lead Advisor & runs the CAI national airway training. She is an Executive Director of WAAM (World Alliance for Airway Management) & co-chaired the first 2 WAMM meetings.
She was elected to the Council of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI) and became vice-president. She received the John Snow Medal for her contributions to the AAGBI.
International work forms an important part of her career and as International Relations committee Chair of AAGBI she was involved in setting up of the charity Lifebox. She led a number of training initiatives in Malawi and completed a Capnography project there. This has led to the development of the GCAP project. She has been involved in the establishment of CANECSA, College of Anaesthesiologists of East, Central & Southern Africa and was recently awarded an Honorary Fellowship of CANECSA.
Paul Baker
Position: Co-Chair, New Zealand
Categories: Airway Management
Curriculum Vitae, 31st August 2022.
• Research interest and Doctor of Medicine thesis concerns ‘Improving the quality and safety of airway management’
• Board member and President-elect of the Society for Airway Management.
• Fellow of the European Airway Management Society
• Founder of the New Zealand Airway Lead network.
• Founder and former executive member of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists Airway Management Special Interest Group
• Developer of the Orsim™ bronchoscopy simulator
• Founded the Airway Skills course in 1996
• Seventy plus publications (59 peer reviewed scientific articles, 1 MD thesis, 8 book chapters and 6 patents) dated 31st August 2022
• New Zealand representative on the working group for the Project for the Universal Management of the Airway (PUMA)
• Co-author of the Canadian Airway Focus Group Guideline, 3rd edition, 2021.
• ANZCA PS56 guideline revision co-author, 2022, Equipment to manage a difficult airway.
Heike Petermann
Position: Co-Chair, Germany
Categories: Arts, Humanities & History of Anaesthesiology
David Mathew
Position: Co-Chair, Singapore
Categories: Arts, Humanities & History of Anaesthesiology
Wilfried Witte
Position: Co-Chair, Germany
Categories: Arts, Humanities & History of Anaesthesiology
Davy Cheng
Position: Co-Chair, China
Categories: Cardiac, Thoracic & Vascular
Suraphong Lorsomradee
Position: Co-Chair, Thailand
Categories: Confederation of ASEAN Societies of Anaesthesiologists (CASA)
Susilo Chandra
Position: Co-Chair, Indonesia
Categories: Confederation of ASEAN Societies of Anaesthesiologists (CASA)
- AS A BOARD OF DIRECTOR OF Obstetric Anesthesia Society of Asian and Oceania (OASAO)
- AS A CONVENER in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, , 16th ,17th, 18th and 19th Annual Meeting of Indoanesthesia 2004-‐2022
- AS A CONVENER in the 1st World Congress of Anesthesia on Obstetric (WCAO) 2017
- AS A BOARD MEMBER of Committee for European Education in Anesthesiology AS A BOARD MEMBER of Asian Australian Regional Section of WFSA, 2016 -‐ 2018
- AS A CHAIR of Asian Australian Regional Section of WFSA, 2018 -‐ 2022
- AS A BOARD MEMBER of Asian and Oceanic Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
- AS A SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM COMMITTEE NWAC 2011
- AS A BOARD MEMBER of World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists 2012-‐2016
- 1980 Medical Doctor – University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia 1988 Anesthesiologist – University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia
- Fellowship by Election of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, London. 17 February 2010.
Sheila Myatra
Position: Co-Chair, India
Categories: Critical Care & Trauma
Sheila Myatra is a Professor of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, working at the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, India. She is the Chair of the Intensive & Critical Care Medicine Committee of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) and the President Elect of the Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine (ISCCM). She is the Immediate Past President of the All India Difficult Airway Association (AIDAA).
She is a member of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SCC) Research Committee and COVID guidelines committee and a Steering Committee Member of the Asia Pacific Sepsis Alliance (APSA). She is among the 14 international airway experts on the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) difficult airway guidelines and the PUMA guidelines (Project for the Universal Management of the Airway). She has led the development of the AIDAA difficult airway guidelines and the first guidelines for tracheal intubation in ICU. Her research interests include airway management, hemodynamic monitoring and sepsis. She has developed a new test in hemodynamic monitoring, called the “tidal volume challenge” (CCM 2017).
She was awarded the European Airway Management Society (EAMS) Honorary Membership in 2022.Awarded FCCM (American College of CCM) and FICCM by ISCCM. She serves on the editorial board of several journals including Anaesthesia, Canadian Journal of Anaesthesia, Journal of Critical Care, Anaesthesia Critical Care & Pain Medicine, Trends in Anaesthesia and Critical Care, Journal of Anaesthesiology Clinical Pharmacology, Indian Journal of Anaesthesiology, and Intensive Care Medicine (past). She has several publications to her credit. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Myatra+S&sort=date.
Will Loh
Position: Co-Chair, Singapore
Categories: Critical Care & Trauma
Professor Loh graduated from University College London Medical School and completed his anaesthesia, research and intensive care training in Liverpool. He is dually accredited in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia. Dr Loh is a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, a Fellow of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and holds the European Diploma in Intensive Care. He completed his research fellowship at the University of Liverpool in ICU acquired weakness and nutrition in the critically ill. He is also a member of the Neuro-Intensive Care and the Systemic Inflammation group of the European Society of Intensive Care. Before moving to Singapore, he was a consultant and chair of the Intensive Care Unit at The Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery in England. Dr Loh’s areas of clinical and research interests include; resuscitation, septic shock, post-critical illness rehabilitation and managing head injuries.
Dr Loh is an Associate Professor, Research Director and Senior Consultant in the Department of Anaesthesia and the Division of Critical Care, National University Hospital. The focus of Will’s research centres on improving outcomes for patients following major surgery and critical illness through developing translational models, focussing on modulating inflammation and ageing.
His other interests are in anaesthesia for awake neurosurgery and functional brain mapping for cancer, where he underwent extensive training in the UK, France and Italy. Professor Loh is also the Associate Chairman Medical Board at the National University Hospital.
Alana Flexman
Position: Co-Chair, Canada
Categories: Neuroscience
Dr. 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 Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences at St. Paul’s Hospital. Dr. Flexman’s research is focused on neuroanesthesia, including perioperative stroke and brain health. After finishing anesthesia residency at UBC, she completed a fellowship in neuroanesthesia at the University of California San Francisco and specializes in the effects of anesthesia and surgery on the brain. Dr. Flexman is the current president of the Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care (SNACC), and the past-chair of the Neuroanesthesia Section of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society.
Nicola Disma
Position: Co-Chair, Italy
Categories: Paediatrics
Nicola Disma is Senior Consultant Pediatric Anesthetist, Head of the Research & Innovation Unit at Istituto Giannina Gaslini, and A/Professor of Paediatric Anaesthesia, Italy. He is member of the Re-search Committee (ex-chairman of the Pediatric Scientific Committee) of ESAIC (European Society of Anesthesia and Intensive Care) and overseas Council member of APAGBI (Association for Pediat-ric Anesthesia of Great Britain and Ireland).
Edwin Seet
Position: Co-Chair, Singapore
Categories: Perioperative & Ambulatory Anaesthesia
Tong Joo (TJ) Gan
Position: Co-Chair, USA
Categories: Perioperative & Ambulatory Anaesthesia
Balavenkat Subramanian
Position: Co-Chair, India
Categories: Regional Anaesthesia
Senior Consultant Anaesthesiologist
Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Care
Ganga Medical Centre & Hospital
Coimbatore, India
President, Asian Oceanic Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine
Member, Educational Committee WFSA
Bruce Biccard
Position: Co-Chair, South Africa
Categories: Research
Bruce Biccard is Professor and Second Chair in the Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. His research interests include perioperative medicine, perioperative outcomes and global surgery. He is a proponent of international collaborative research. He collaborates with the African Perioperative Research Group (APORG) network, where he has led the African Surgical Outcomes Study (ASOS), the ASOS-2 Trial, and co-led the African Covid-19 Critical Care Outcomes Study (ACCCOS). He is the co-Lead for the NIHR Global Health Group on Perioperative and Critical Care.
Maxime Cannesson
Position: Co-Chair, USA
Categories: Technology, Pharmacology & AI
Maxime Cannesson, MD, PhD, is a board-certified anesthesiologist with more than 15 years of experience in academic medicine, leadership, education, research, quality, and technology development, working collaboratively within and among various countries, departments, academic institutions, and industry. He is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at UCLA. He has published more than 200 peer reviewed articles and three textbooks.
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Airway Management
Ellen O’Sullivan
Position: Co-Chair, Ireland
Categories: Airway Management
Prof Ellen O’Sullivan, FRCA, FCAI, FCPSP (Hon) FCANECSA(Hon)
Professor Ellen O’Sullivan trained in anaesthesia in the UK and USA. She is now a Consultant Anaesthesiologist at St James’s Hospital Dublin. She specializes in airway management and is Director of the Fellowship in Advanced Airway Management and Simulation which has been running for 12 years. She was appointed DAS Professor of Anaesthesia & Airway Management in 2018. She has a substantial portfolio of clinically relevant research and has co-authored more than 140 scientific papers (H-Index 25), book chapters, website modules etc. & has lectured and taught workshops internationally.
She is Past President of the Difficult Airway Society, DAS, and in 2022 she received the DAS Macewan medal for her services to DAS & is now the DAS International liaison officer.
Prof Ellen O’Sullivan held many roles in the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland (CAI) including serving as the CAI President. She is now the CAI Airway lead Advisor & runs the CAI national airway training. She is an Executive Director of WAAM (World Alliance for Airway Management) & co-chaired the first 2 WAMM meetings.
She was elected to the Council of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI) and became vice-president. She received the John Snow Medal for her contributions to the AAGBI.
International work forms an important part of her career and as International Relations committee Chair of AAGBI she was involved in setting up of the charity Lifebox. She led a number of training initiatives in Malawi and completed a Capnography project there. This has led to the development of the GCAP project. She has been involved in the establishment of CANECSA, College of Anaesthesiologists of East, Central & Southern Africa and was recently awarded an Honorary Fellowship of CANECSA.
Paul Baker
Position: Co-Chair, New Zealand
Categories: Airway Management
Curriculum Vitae, 31st August 2022.
• Research interest and Doctor of Medicine thesis concerns ‘Improving the quality and safety of airway management’
• Board member and President-elect of the Society for Airway Management.
• Fellow of the European Airway Management Society
• Founder of the New Zealand Airway Lead network.
• Founder and former executive member of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists Airway Management Special Interest Group
• Developer of the Orsim™ bronchoscopy simulator
• Founded the Airway Skills course in 1996
• Seventy plus publications (59 peer reviewed scientific articles, 1 MD thesis, 8 book chapters and 6 patents) dated 31st August 2022
• New Zealand representative on the working group for the Project for the Universal Management of the Airway (PUMA)
• Co-author of the Canadian Airway Focus Group Guideline, 3rd edition, 2021.
• ANZCA PS56 guideline revision co-author, 2022, Equipment to manage a difficult airway.
Arts & Humanities
Heike Petermann
Position: Co-Chair, Germany
Categories: Arts, Humanities & History of Anaesthesiology
David Mathew
Position: Co-Chair, Singapore
Categories: Arts, Humanities & History of Anaesthesiology
Wilfried Witte
Position: Co-Chair, Germany
Categories: Arts, Humanities & History of Anaesthesiology
Cardiac, Thoracic & Vascular
Davy Cheng
Position: Co-Chair, China
Categories: Cardiac, Thoracic & Vascular
Confederation of ASEAN Societies of Anaesthesiologists (CASA)
Suraphong Lorsomradee
Position: Co-Chair, Thailand
Categories: Confederation of ASEAN Societies of Anaesthesiologists (CASA)
Susilo Chandra
Position: Co-Chair, Indonesia
Categories: Confederation of ASEAN Societies of Anaesthesiologists (CASA)
- AS A BOARD OF DIRECTOR OF Obstetric Anesthesia Society of Asian and Oceania (OASAO)
- AS A CONVENER in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, , 16th ,17th, 18th and 19th Annual Meeting of Indoanesthesia 2004-‐2022
- AS A CONVENER in the 1st World Congress of Anesthesia on Obstetric (WCAO) 2017
- AS A BOARD MEMBER of Committee for European Education in Anesthesiology AS A BOARD MEMBER of Asian Australian Regional Section of WFSA, 2016 -‐ 2018
- AS A CHAIR of Asian Australian Regional Section of WFSA, 2018 -‐ 2022
- AS A BOARD MEMBER of Asian and Oceanic Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
- AS A SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM COMMITTEE NWAC 2011
- AS A BOARD MEMBER of World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists 2012-‐2016
- 1980 Medical Doctor – University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia 1988 Anesthesiologist – University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia
- Fellowship by Election of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, London. 17 February 2010.
Critical Care & Trauma
Sheila Myatra
Position: Co-Chair, India
Categories: Critical Care & Trauma
Sheila Myatra is a Professor of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, working at the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, India. She is the Chair of the Intensive & Critical Care Medicine Committee of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) and the President Elect of the Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine (ISCCM). She is the Immediate Past President of the All India Difficult Airway Association (AIDAA).
She is a member of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SCC) Research Committee and COVID guidelines committee and a Steering Committee Member of the Asia Pacific Sepsis Alliance (APSA). She is among the 14 international airway experts on the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) difficult airway guidelines and the PUMA guidelines (Project for the Universal Management of the Airway). She has led the development of the AIDAA difficult airway guidelines and the first guidelines for tracheal intubation in ICU. Her research interests include airway management, hemodynamic monitoring and sepsis. She has developed a new test in hemodynamic monitoring, called the “tidal volume challenge” (CCM 2017).
She was awarded the European Airway Management Society (EAMS) Honorary Membership in 2022.Awarded FCCM (American College of CCM) and FICCM by ISCCM. She serves on the editorial board of several journals including Anaesthesia, Canadian Journal of Anaesthesia, Journal of Critical Care, Anaesthesia Critical Care & Pain Medicine, Trends in Anaesthesia and Critical Care, Journal of Anaesthesiology Clinical Pharmacology, Indian Journal of Anaesthesiology, and Intensive Care Medicine (past). She has several publications to her credit. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Myatra+S&sort=date.
Will Loh
Position: Co-Chair, Singapore
Categories: Critical Care & Trauma
Professor Loh graduated from University College London Medical School and completed his anaesthesia, research and intensive care training in Liverpool. He is dually accredited in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia. Dr Loh is a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, a Fellow of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and holds the European Diploma in Intensive Care. He completed his research fellowship at the University of Liverpool in ICU acquired weakness and nutrition in the critically ill. He is also a member of the Neuro-Intensive Care and the Systemic Inflammation group of the European Society of Intensive Care. Before moving to Singapore, he was a consultant and chair of the Intensive Care Unit at The Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery in England. Dr Loh’s areas of clinical and research interests include; resuscitation, septic shock, post-critical illness rehabilitation and managing head injuries.
Dr Loh is an Associate Professor, Research Director and Senior Consultant in the Department of Anaesthesia and the Division of Critical Care, National University Hospital. The focus of Will’s research centres on improving outcomes for patients following major surgery and critical illness through developing translational models, focussing on modulating inflammation and ageing.
His other interests are in anaesthesia for awake neurosurgery and functional brain mapping for cancer, where he underwent extensive training in the UK, France and Italy. Professor Loh is also the Associate Chairman Medical Board at the National University Hospital.
Education, Simulation & Development
Global Health
Neuroscience
Alana Flexman
Position: Co-Chair, Canada
Categories: Neuroscience
Dr. 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 Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences at St. Paul’s Hospital. Dr. Flexman’s research is focused on neuroanesthesia, including perioperative stroke and brain health. After finishing anesthesia residency at UBC, she completed a fellowship in neuroanesthesia at the University of California San Francisco and specializes in the effects of anesthesia and surgery on the brain. Dr. Flexman is the current president of the Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care (SNACC), and the past-chair of the Neuroanesthesia Section of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society.
Obstetric Anaesthesia
Paediatric Anaesthesia
Nicola Disma
Position: Co-Chair, Italy
Categories: Paediatrics
Nicola Disma is Senior Consultant Pediatric Anesthetist, Head of the Research & Innovation Unit at Istituto Giannina Gaslini, and A/Professor of Paediatric Anaesthesia, Italy. He is member of the Re-search Committee (ex-chairman of the Pediatric Scientific Committee) of ESAIC (European Society of Anesthesia and Intensive Care) and overseas Council member of APAGBI (Association for Pediat-ric Anesthesia of Great Britain and Ireland).
Pain
Perioperative & Ambulatory Anaesthesia
Edwin Seet
Position: Co-Chair, Singapore
Categories: Perioperative & Ambulatory Anaesthesia
Tong Joo (TJ) Gan
Position: Co-Chair, USA
Categories: Perioperative & Ambulatory Anaesthesia
Professional Practice & DEI
Regional Anaesthesia
Balavenkat Subramanian
Position: Co-Chair, India
Categories: Regional Anaesthesia
Senior Consultant Anaesthesiologist
Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Care
Ganga Medical Centre & Hospital
Coimbatore, India
President, Asian Oceanic Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine
Member, Educational Committee WFSA
Research
Bruce Biccard
Position: Co-Chair, South Africa
Categories: Research
Bruce Biccard is Professor and Second Chair in the Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. His research interests include perioperative medicine, perioperative outcomes and global surgery. He is a proponent of international collaborative research. He collaborates with the African Perioperative Research Group (APORG) network, where he has led the African Surgical Outcomes Study (ASOS), the ASOS-2 Trial, and co-led the African Covid-19 Critical Care Outcomes Study (ACCCOS). He is the co-Lead for the NIHR Global Health Group on Perioperative and Critical Care.
Safety & Quality
Sustainability
Technology, Pharmacology & AI
Maxime Cannesson
Position: Co-Chair, USA
Categories: Technology, Pharmacology & AI
Maxime Cannesson, MD, PhD, is a board-certified anesthesiologist with more than 15 years of experience in academic medicine, leadership, education, research, quality, and technology development, working collaboratively within and among various countries, departments, academic institutions, and industry. He is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at UCLA. He has published more than 200 peer reviewed articles and three textbooks.
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WORKSHOPS
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LEARNING DISCUSSIONS
Participate in problem based learning discussions with peers and leading experts in the field.
SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME
See what’s in store for you at WCA2024. Our Scientific Programme is now available for download.