Contemporary care through collaboration

Sanj Fernando is an Emergency Physician working at Liverpool in Sydney. He has worked in aeromedical retrieval and pre-hospital care for over 20yrs. He is currently a NSW state retrieval consultant. He is also one of the two Co- Directors of Developing EM which is a not for profit organization that seeks to support acute care and critical care services across the globe. In 2016 he commenced a collaboration with the Suwasiriya (the Sri Lankan ambulance service) to build a service from the ground up. It now services the whole country with a population of 21 million people. He has worked to further acute medical training in Cambodia, Myanmar, PNG, The Solomon islands, Fiji, Cuba, Brazil Nepal and elsewhere. He is currently setting up a global EMS group to share training, experiences, case discussions and protocols amongst developing EMS systems around the world.

Victoria is a Consultant Emergency Specialist and Paediatrician based on the Gold Coast. She is currently seconded for a 6 month term working with the High Acuity Response Unit working out of Brisbane. She enjoys the challenge of Trauma and is loving the opportunity to hone her skills in the pre-hospital environment.

Natasha Adams is a Senior Critical Care Paramedic with the Queensland Ambulance Service, working with the Brisbane High Acuity Response Unit. Her clinical interests include progressive trauma and medical care, clinical education and leadership development.

Matt is an Intensive Care (MICA) Paramedic with Ambulance Victoria, where he has been a paramedic since 2009. Within Ambulance Victoria, Matt also currently works as a Patient Review Specialist. Since 2010, Matt has been a teaching associate with Monash University's undergraduate and postgraduate Paramedic degrees; and is a founding board member, and current secretary, of the Safe Airway Society. Matt is passionate about airway management and patient safety, and improving paramedic education, training, and practice in these areas.

Libby has worked in the prehospital world for NSW Ambulance for over 20 years. The last 10 years have been in the role of Critical Care Helicopter Paramedic. Even after 10 years she finds the role to be ever evolving with new learnings, challenges and of course amazing comradery with the crew she works alongside. She feels privileged to work alongside the most incredible Paramedics, pilots, air crewmen and doctors. ‘Everyone has worked their off to be in rescue and retrieval medicine – so when the work is on we are at our most fulfilled. I justifies all the hours of training.’

Dr. Sam Bendall is an Emergency Physician at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, a Retrieval Specialist with CareFlight and NSW Ambulance and a State Retrieval Consultant with NSW Ambulance. She is the National Director of Education for CareFlight, and is passionate about improving human factors knowledge and skills to grow performance and safety, including using simulation to improve critical decision making. She is also one of the Deputy Directors of the Sydney Local Health District MDOK program focusing on leadership and performance at an individual, team and organisational level to improve clinician wellbeing

Hannah is a Critical Care Flight Paramedic working in Wellington and a postgraduate university lecturer at AUT University, New Zealand. Hannah has extensive experience in the ambulance and emergency care sector and is passionate about learning and continuing education to ensure that patients receive the highest standard of care. Hannah is currently completing her doctoral studies and is investigating how ultrasound can be integrated into the resuscitation of patients who are in cardiac arrest. Her research aims to identify very ‘low flow’ states associated with pseudo-pulseless electrical activity. Hannah is a mum to Sam and enjoys adventures exploring the outdoors in her spare time.

Sam Burton is an intensive care paramedic from regional Victoria with over a decade of in-hospital and prehospital experience. This perspective has led to Sam identifying ways to better improve patient care in a range of clinical applications. Sam has a strong focus on point of care ultrasound (POCUS) and has recently published research in this field. Sam has an ongoing commitment to the dissemination and sharing of knowledge from both his clinical and research practice. Sam has been involved in the development and delivery of numerous training programs to paramedics throughout Victoria and will bring a broad perspective to the stage.

Emma is an Emergency Physician with over 15 years experience working at Royal Melbourne Hospital. She is interested in training junior doctors achieve their potential in the field of emergency medicine. Emma has a passion for helping trainees who struggle to pass exams and spends time working with them to support them through the stressful time. Emma also loves training doctors to be confident and capable trauma team leaders. She attempts to demonstrate kindness and good communication as the core attributes to successful team leadership.

With more than 30 years nursing experience, Dr Cliff Connell has spent the last 24 years as an emergency Nurse, emergency Clinical Nurse Educator, Clinical Nurse Consultant university lecturer and researcher. A Fellow of the College of Emergency Nursing Australasia, he is the Deputy Director of Graduate Research and Senior Lecturer in Emergency Nursing at Monash Nursing and Midwifery (MNM), a Monash Health Emergency research fellow and a Monash University, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Research Fellow. Cliff’s work is translational research which aims to improve the safety and quality of care provision and outcomes for emergency department (ED) patients. In his program of research, he leads several projects related to current physiological assessment practice in the ED, its association with patient and system outcomes and improving these outcomes using computational support for clinical decision support systems. Cliff is a member of the First2Act research development team, a core project researcher of the Team Emergency Assessment Measure (TEAMTM) and producer and presenter of the This Emergency Life Podcast

UK trained Consultant with dual accreditation in Emergency and Pre-hospital Medicine with over 15 years experience working with HEMS, rapid road response, motorsport and secondary aeromedical retrieval services. Dr Gayle Christie began working with SJAWA in 2021 as the Deputy Medical Director and Clinical Lead for the Critical Care Paramedics and in September 2022 took up the role as Medical Director for the ambulance service. Gayle has a real passion for education and training as well as developing and expanding the scope of paramedic practice

James is a Critical Care Paramedic / Rescue Crewman, currently working on the RAC Rescue helicopter, based in Western Australia. He has worked in the Health Service in an acute and prehospital setting around the world for over 25 years. Training initially as a registered Nurse, James spent 6 years working in ED, prior to commencing his Paramedic journey in 2004 with, Yorkshire Ambulance Service. Entering his 19th operational year, James has undertaken a variety of front line, leadership, educational roles, and has over 10 years of UK and Australian rotary HEMS experience. He has a passion for taking paramedic education outside the classroom and is a strong advocate for the Paramedic profession.

David is the Medical Director of Ambulance Victoria, an intensivist at The Alfred Hospital and an adjunct senior lecturer in the Department of Paramedicine at Monash University. He has trained and worked as a paramedic in Auckland and as a doctor in Auckland, Sydney and Toronto before settling in Melbourne. In addition to his intensive care fellowship he has spent time training in anaesthesia, prehospital and retrieval medicine and palliative medicine. He has a diploma in palliative medicine and is completing a masters in bioethics. His clinical interests are prehospital and retrieval medicine, trauma, EMCO and bioethics. He has an embarrassingly large collection of Lego.