CRITICAL CARE NATIONAL CONGRESS
CRITICAL THINKING
CENTURY CITY CONFERENCE CENTRE CAPE TOWN
17-20 SEPTEMBER 2026
Queen’s University Belfast
Bronwen Connolly is a Professor of Critical Care at Queen’s University Belfast, where she is Deputy Director of the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, and Honorary Senior Fellow at The University of Melbourne, with over 25 years’ experience as a physiotherapist. Her research interests focus on acute respiratory and rehabilitation interventions in critical illness, the recovery, long-term outcome, and survivorship of post critical illness patients, and clinical trial methods. Bronwen is currently Co-Chief Investigator of the MARCH trial (NIHR HTA Programme), investigating the effectiveness of mucoactive drugs, as well as co-Investigator on several other nationally funded critical care trials. She also leads PRACTICE, focusing on the development of a core outcome set for trials of physical rehabilitation in critical illness. Within the critical care community, Bronwen’s roles include Intensive Care Society Director of Research and Chair of the UK Critical Care Research Group.
Anthony Etyang underwent his undergraduate and postgraduate medical education at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. He then did an MSc and PhD in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His primary research interest is in determining locally relevant solutions for controlling the burden of hypertension and other non-communicable conditions in low-and-middle income settings. His research spans from basic science to clinical trials and implementation strategies for control of a wide variety of diseases of importance in sub-Saharan Africa. He played a critical role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya as part of a multi-disciplinary team at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme. This included designing and leading epidemiological studies as well as clinical trials.
He is based at the KEMRI Centre for Geographic Medicine Research- Coast and is the current Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Demography at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme. He is also the Acting Head of the Clinical Research Department.
He is an Associate Professor in the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford and an Honorary Associate Professor at the Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology Dept at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He also serves on several local and international working groups including the Health Data Collaborative hosted by the WHO.
Dr. Briseida Mema, MD, FRCPSC, MHPE, is a staff physician in the Department of Critical Care Medicine at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Toronto. She serves as Program Director for the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Training Program at the University of Toronto and as Associate Chief of Education for Peri-Operative Services at SickKids.
Dr. Mema is the Medical Director of the PICU Bronchoscopy Program and the founder of an Advanced Interventional Respiratory Fellowship. She has received multiple awards for teaching excellence as both a trainee and faculty member.
A clinician educator, her scholarly work focuses on simulation-based education, the transfer of learning from simulation to clinical practice, and the assessment of learners. She is Chair of TACTICS (Training and Assessment of Clinicians in Teams in Intensive Care through Simulation), a national simulation event for pediatric critical care trainees.
Dr. Mema is also a leader in medical humanities. As the recipient of the University of Toronto Medical Humanities Education Grant (2019–2025), she has developed and leads a longitudinal humanities curriculum for intensive care trainees and faculty, supporting reflection and professional identity formation.
She has facilitated nearly 100 faculty development workshops locally, nationally, and internationally, with a focus on bronchoscopy, simulation, assessment, and medical humanities.
Emma is an Associate Professor, National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leadership Fellow and heads the Nutrition Program at the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. With over 15 years of experience in critical care nutrition research, Emma completed her PhD in 2018. Emma focuses on long-term nutrition interventions for the critically ill and is internationally recognized for her expertise (ranked in the top 1% on Expertscape for multiple critical care and clinical nutrition topics). She has over 150 peer-reviewed publications and has secured over $27 million in research funding, including $6.2 million as CIA. Emma is the CI-A on the recently completed INTENT trial and was awarded a $1.49 million MRFF 2022 grant titled “A national platform for improving quality of nutrition care for critically ill adults and children”. Emma also practices as a clinical dietitian at The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne.
Professor Jason Roberts is Deputy Director of the Frazer Institute at the University of Queensland and is Interim Director of the Herston Infectious Diseases Institute (HeIDI). Academically he is an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Leadership Fellow and a Fellow of the Australian Academy for Health and Medical Sciences. Clinically, he is a Clinical Pharmacist at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
Louise Rose RN, PhD, MBE is a Professorand Research Division Head at King’s College London. She also holds an honorary Professorship in the Departments of Critical Care and Lane Fox Respiratory Unit at St Thomas’ Hospital in London.Prior to this she was an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on improving outcomes and experience of patients with acute and chronic respiratory failure including those receiving mechanical ventilation in intensive care and at home in the community. Prof Rose is a senior or principal investigator on numerous randomized controlled trials in both critical care and home ventilation funded in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdon.
Professor Rose has authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications and been awarded over 110 peer reviewed research grants from government and charitable organisation funders in Canada, the UK Australia and New Zealand totalling over £22 million. Professor Rose is active in various professional societies including being the current chair of the Research Division of the UK Intensive Care Society.
In 2023 she received a Member of the British Empire (MBE) for her work in digital innovations to support patients and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. Louise also has over 20 years of clinical experience within the field of critical care nursing, including bedside, managerial and clinical education roles in England, New Zealand and Australia, incorporating cardiothoracic, paediatric and trauma specialty units, as well as medical and surgical intensive care units.
Dr. Stoppe, a Professor of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at Charité in Berlin and Würzburg University, Germany, is leading several international clinical trials in the field of clinical nutrition. He has established a global clinical research group focused on interventional nutrition studies in collaboration with international partners. Dr. Stoppe has received numerous research grants, including from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and other third-party funding sources. His research spans nutrition studies, perioperative optimization, functional outcomes and risk assessment, guideline development, translational studies, and organ protection, particularly in cardiac surgery, severe burns, and critically ill patients. With over 290 publications, Dr. Stoppe is a frequent speaker at international conferences and serves as a lecturer in courses on nutrition and metabolism. He also contributes to the European, American, German, and Canadian Nutrition Guidelines Committees and is a content expert for the ERAS Cardiac group.
Nasreen Allie is the Assistant Director of the Speech Therapy Department at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, and a Speech-Language Pathologist with over 14 years of clinical, academic, and leadership experience in tertiary healthcare. She holds a master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Cape Town, where her research focused on the development and validation of an isiXhosa assessment tool for adults with apraxia of speech, contributing to the advancement of culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment practices in South Africa.
Her clinical expertise spans critical care, neurosurgery, neurology, oncology, dysphagia, tracheostomy, laryngectomy rehabilitation, motor speech and cognitive-communication disorders. She has played a pioneering role in the development of speech-language pathology services for awake craniotomy procedures within the South African public healthcare sector and has extensive experience in the assessment and management of patients in intensive care and acute care environments.
In addition to her clinical leadership role, Nasreen serves as a Guest Lecturer at the University of Cape Town and is actively involved in the supervision and training of speech-language pathology students and clinicians. She has completed advanced training in medico-legal practice, medical negligence, health sector mediation, and leadership development.
She is an active contributor to academic and professional discourse through conference presentations, publications and continuing professional development activities. She has presented nationally on apraxia of speech, awake craniotomy, COVID-19 rehabilitation, and stroke outcomes. She is a co-author of a 2025 Routledge publication on global speech-language therapy practices.
Nasreen is committed to ongoing professional development and contributes to initiatives aimed at enhancing evidence-based clinical care, education, rehabilitation services, patient outcomes and service delivery within resource-constrained settings.
Andrew Argent has worked in critical care in Cape Town for more than 30 years, and directed the largest paediatric intensive care unit in Africa until 2019. He is a past President of the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care societies. Although retired, he remains involved in the development of clinical approaches to the recognition and management of sepsis in children. He has a particular interest in the provision of care to critically ill children in countries across the world, and has been involved in the development and implementation of training programmes for healthcare workers in pediatric critical care. Andrew continues to be involved in consultations regarding multiple aspects of the care of critically ill children
Christel Arnold-Day is a neurosurgeon and a full-time intensivist in the division of Critical Care at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She graduated from Wits University in 2010 with her MBChB, completed her FC Neurosurgery through the CMSA in 2018, MMED (Neurosurg) in 2019 through UCT after which she completed her Certificate in Critical Care as well as MPhil (Crit Care) through the CMSA and UCT in 2022. She is passionate about all things critical care but has particular interests in neurocritical care as well as advanced multimodal neuromonitoring in the ICU. She is also a mother of 3 amazing kids and wife to an awesome husband and likes to spend every moment with her family and friends.
Brittany is an Occupational Therapist who graduated from UCT in 2019. She has worked in various healthcare contexts including rural hospitals, subacute facilities, psychiatric clinics, providing functional assessments within the insurance industry and offering rehabilitation in the acute hospital environment including ICU. She has a special interest in supporting clients to achieve optimal level of functioning through activity engagement to reduce disability and improve quality of life. Brittany is working alongside a team of Occupational Therapists at Mind Body Function and is primarily based at UCT Private Academic Hospital treating in-patients with both acute and chronic illnesses. Brittany is passionate about MDT collaboration and the valuable role that Occupational Therapy can play in promoting functional outcomes in the ICU setting.
Dr. Giacomo Bellani is Professor of Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Trento and serves as the Head of the Anesthesia and Intensive Care Unit at Santa Chiara Hospital in Trento, Italy. Previously, he held positions as an assistant and associate professor at the University of Milan Bicocca, where he also completed his training, and worked as a physician in the Intensive Care Unit at San Gerardo Hospital. In 2003-2004, he served as a research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. In 2010, he earned his PhD in Biomedical Technology. His research primarily focuses on Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and mechanical ventilation monitoring. From 2015 to 2018, he served as the chairman of the Acute Respiratory Failure Section of ESICM. He was also a co-Principal Investigator of the LUNG SAFE study. Dr. Bellani has authored approximately 300 indexed papers and 5 deposited patents and delivered hundreds of invited talks worldwide. Additionally, he co-founded ReviewerCredits.com and Dico Technologies. He co-authored the dystopic novel “Skill Trade-Milan Elsewhere”
Professore Ordinario Anestesia e presso l’Università di Trento e Direttore della UOC di Anestesia e Rianimazione dell’ Ospedale Santa Chiara di Trento dal febbraio 2023. Dopo la laurea in Medicina e Chirurgia, conseguita nel 2001, si è specializzato in Anestesia e Rianimazione nel 2005. Nel 2003-2004 è stato research fellow presso il Massachusetts General Hospital di Boston e nel 2010 ha conseguito il Dottorato di Ricerca in Tecnologie Biomediche. Dal 2008 al 2023 è stato dapprima Ricercatore, poi Professore Associato, presso l’università Milano Bicocca e Dirigente Medico in convenzione presso l’unità di Anestesia e Rianimazione della ASST di Monza. E’ impegnato nella ricerca clinica, focalizzandosi principalmente sull’insufficienza respiratoria acuta e sulla ventilazione meccanica. E’ autore di circa 250 pubblicazioni indicizzate, cimque brevetti ed ha pubblicato il volume ““Mechanical Ventilation: from pathophysiology to clinical evidence” in qualità di Editor. Anche grazie a queste competenze, ha tenuto oltre 200 conferenze su invito a congressi internazionali. E’ stato cofondatore di due startup: ReviewerCredits.com e Dicotechnologies.
Prof Renée Blaauw, PhD (Nutritional Sciences) is a Professor in Therapeutic Nutrition at the Division of Human Nutrition, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She is a registered dietitian with the Health Professions Council of South Africa. She is a Past Chairperson of the Professional Board for Dietetics in South Africa, a Past President of SASPEN and an honorary member of both SASPEN and ADSA. She is currently serving as the President Elect and Scientific Secretary of SASPEN. Her main research interests include Nutrition support of critically ill patients, Micronutrients and Hospital malnutrition. To this effect she is a member of the GLIM (Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition) working group and endeavours to contribute to the evidence-base regarding adult hospital malnutrition in South Africa.
Dr Candice Bowers is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Nursing Science at Nelson Mandela University, with 13 years of experience in undergraduate and postgraduate nursing education. She has a diverse clinical background, having practised in South Africa and internationally in Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands, and is a member of the Critical Care Nurses Forum of the CCSSA.
Her research focuses on critical care nursing, particularly workplace-related challenges affecting critical care nurses in ICU settings. In recognition of her research potential, she was awarded the National Research Foundation (NRF) BAAP Grant in 2022. Dr Bowers has a particular interest in quantitative research methodologies and has published in peer-reviewed journals, conducted research reviews, and presented at regional and national conferences.
Dr Bowers has successfully supervised and co-supervised 38 Honours and Masters’ students and currently oversees several postgraduate research projects. She is leading the development of the Postgraduate Diploma in Critical Care Nursing (Adult) at Nelson Mandela University. Passionate about student-centred learning, she employs case-based and problem-based teaching approaches to foster critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and evidence-informed practice among future nursing professionals.
Petra Brysiewicz is a full professor of Nursing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban and Honorary Full professor: University of Cape Town. She has worked with research and education of nurses in South Africa and Africa for over 29 years, in acute/emergency care/critical care. She is a National Research Foundation of South Africa B rated researcher.
Petra is the Editor-in-Chief of International Emergency Nursing journal and associate Nursing editor for the Southern African Journal of Critical Care.
She is the immediate past president of the Academy of Nursing of South Africa, a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the current president of the International Family Nursing Association.
Siyabonga Dumisani Buthelezi is a Critical Care Nurse Specialist with both clinical and academic expertise. He is serving as a lecturer and coordinator for general nursing science in the third- and fourth-year nursing programme at the Adelaide Tambo School of Nursing Science, Tshwane University of Technology. He is also an instructor for the Basic for Nurses course offered by the Critical Care Society of Southern Africa (CCSSA) and represents nurses in the eGoli branch of CCSSA. Siyabonga is a member of the CCSSA.
He holds an MSc in Nursing, multiple postgraduate qualifications in nursing education and critical care, and a certificate in wound care. His professional and research interests include critical care nursing, patient- and family-centred care, clinical quality improvement in healthcare settings, and nursing education and training.
Associate Professor Greg Calligaro is a senior specialist in the Division of Pulmonology at Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH) and a researcher at the University of Cape Town (UCT) Lung Institute. He completed a Fellowship in Thoracic Transplantation at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, in 2016. He is the medical lead of the Heart and Lung Transplant Programme at GSH, directs the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Clinic, and oversees the Exercise Physiology Laboratory. His clinical and research interests include lung transplantation for end-stage lung disease, interstitial lung diseases, cystic fibrosis, exercise physiology, pulmonary vascular disease, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). He played a founding role in establishing the ECMO service at Groote Schuur Hospital.
Professor Sean Chetty is Executive Head of the Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care at Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Hospital, South Africa. He is an academic anaesthesiologist, clinician scientist, and educator with research interests in pain medicine, peri-operative care, patient safety, critical care, and medical education. He has published and presented widely in these fields and is actively involved in postgraduate training, curriculum development, and research supervision.
Prof Chetty serves in leadership roles within several national and international professional organisations, including the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA), the Critical Care Society of Southern Africa (CCSSA), and the South African Society of Anaesthesiologists (SASA). His current work focuses on improving patient outcomes, advancing equitable access to safe anaesthesia and pain care, and strengthening academic and professional development in anaesthesiology across Africa
Madeleine Coetzee is a dietitian working in private practice at Wits Donald Gordon Medical
Centre in Johannesburg. She works mainly in ICU and the surgical unit where she is passionate about delivering optimal nutritional care for critically ill-, surgical- and intestinal failure patients. She enjoys teaching and training and has presented at several local conferences and is an ESPEN LLL trainer. Madeleine is an active member of SASPEN and ESPEN, and is currently a SASPEN council member.
Minette Coetzee is the founding Director of the Harry Crossley Children’s Nursing Development Unit at the University of Cape Town. She is committed to strengthening children’s nursing across Africa through education, clinical practice development, and workforce capacity building. Minette has led the development and accreditation of 10 specialist children’s nursing curricula in seven African countries and collaborated with the World Health Organization on a specialist paediatric nursing curriculum for the region. A former Vice-President of the World Federation of Paediatric Intensive and Critical Care, she continues to support paediatric nursing and critical care nursing leadership and innovation across sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr. Ryan Davids is an Anaesthesiologist and Intensivist as well as Bioethicist based in Cape Town, South Africa.
As Head of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Tygerberg Academic Hospital, he leads teams in clinical excellence and has trained many local and international fellows in Critical Care.
Ryan is an avid researcher, and is currently embarking on a PhD in Critical care investigating the metabolomic response to repeat immunological insults and the impact of personalized nutritional interventions.
Clare is a UK-trained PICU nurse who worked at Birmingham Children’s Hospital (UK) until 2009 when she moved to Cape Town to join The Harry Crossley Children’s Nursing Development Unit (CNDU). There she taught into and later led Arica’s first postgraduate diploma in critical care child nursing, and another in child nursing.
Since 2021, Clare has led the design and development of another ‘first in training’ – the suite of ‘Essentials of Nursing Children’ short courses. These innovative courses are offered using an asynchronous, online approach, intended to extend access to training for nurses working with children across the African region. The Essentials in Critically Sick Children and Essentials of Paediatric Burns Care are part of this suite.
Clare also serves as the Instructional Design Lead for the CNDU, is one of three members of the Executive Committee and serves on the Postgraduate Education Committee for the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, UCT. She is currently registered for her PhD, examining the use of online learning for continuous professional development training opportunities for nurses across Africa.
Anna-Lena du Toit is the Assistant Director and Head of the Dietetics Department at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. She is the Immediate Past President of the South African Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (SASPEN) and continues to serve on the SASPEN Council. She has a strong interest in critical care nutrition, intestinal failure, and nutrition support, and has been actively involved in advancing clinical nutrition through research, education, guideline development, and multidisciplinary collaboration. Anna-Lena is committed to bridging the gap between evidence and clinical practice to improve nutrition care and outcomes for critically ill patients.
Molly Erasmus is a clinical pharmacist with a strong background in hospital pharmacy practice and antimicrobial stewardship. She holds a B.Pharm (1996) and B.Pharm (Hons) (1997) from the former PU for CHE (now North-West University), and an M.Pharm (2021) from Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University. Her master’s research focused on prescribing patterns for upper respiratory tract infections in children in a private hospital emergency setting in Johannesburg.
She has served in various capacities across several Netcare hospitals, including Rosebank, Clinton, Linkwood, Linksfield, Milpark, and Unitas. She began her full-time clinical pharmacist career at Netcare Milpark Hospital in 2023 and currently serves as the clinical pharmacist for Netcare Linksfield, Linkwood, and Unitas hospitals.
Career highlights include presenting at FIDSSA ( Improving antibiotic hangtime in a private hospital medical ward) SASOCP ( anticoagulant stewardship, antibiotic prescribing in C.difficile patients at a private hospital in Gauteng and antibiotic prescribing in children at a private hospital in Gauteng) and ECMO-SA ( Therapeutic drug monitoring in ECMO patients) conferences, contributing to the SAASP CAP study, and attending the MAD-ID conference in Orlando, USA.
Old Critical Care Nurse, currently working in Simulation and Clinical Skills Unit at Stellenbosch University, MBChB curriculum renewal, clinical skills and simulation design. Department of Health Professions Education.
Interest in Education assessment, Simulation, Human Factors, Patient Safety and Early recognition of the deteriorating patient.
SA BASIC for Nurses course director.
Engela Francis qualified as a dietitian from the University of Pretoria in 2000. She is in Private Practice at the Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital in Pretoria since 2017. Engela previously worked for the Gauteng Department of Health at Steve Biko Academic Hospital from 2004 – 2016. In 2019 she qualified as an ESPEN LLL trainer. Engela is an active member of SASPEN and served on the executive council as Treasurer since 2017. Engela has a keen interest in Critical Care Nutrition and Surgery. She has been working as part of a multidisciplinary team in Surgical Wards and Critical Care since 2006. Engela is a member of SASPEN, ADSA, CCSSA and ESPEN.
I am a Critical Care Physician currently working in the Division of Critical Care at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.
My specific areas of interests are in Advanced Airway, Mechanical Ventilation, Toxicology and Ultrasound.
I am currently the Secretary of the Emergency Medicine Council and I am the EM representative on the intercollegiate board of Critical Care in South Africa.
I am a dad of 2 budding superstars, and I will never walk alone as I am a die hard Liverpool football supporter.
Ashley Gaskin is a Speech-Language Therapist and Chief Speech Therapist at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. She has extensive experience in acute and critical care services, with clinical interests in dysphagia, tracheostomy management, instrumental swallowing assessment, and multidisciplinary rehabilitation. Her work focuses on improving access to specialised speech therapy services within resource-constrained healthcare settings. Ashley is actively involved in clinical training, service development, and research aimed at improving outcomes for patients with complex communication and swallowing disorders.
Dr. Hayitheim T. A. Gasmelsied (HTA Gasmelsied) is a Consultant Physician, holder of the European Diploma in Intensive Care (EDIC) and MRCPUK, currently serving as a Critical Care Fellow at Groote Schuur Hospital/University of Cape Town, South Africa a center that manages complex neurosurgical cases, ECMO, and heart and lung transplant patients. .
I graduated in Ukraine in 2005 and has been registered as a Specialist Physician with the Sudan Medical Council since December 2016. Between 2016 and 2021, I worked across both public and private sectors in Sudan. From 2021 to 2024, I practiced in the UAE, where I helped establish a Rapid Response Team during the COVID‑19 pandemic with awake proning and non‑invasive ventilation forming part of its mission. This initiative extended beyond COVID‑19 to non‑COVID services.
Dr. Gasmelsied has a special interest in Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) and bronchoscopy in the ICU. We independently managed CRRT machines during my work in Sudan. In 2025, I joined Groote Schuur Hospital/UCT as a Critical Care Fellow where I had.
Dean Gopalan is an academic clinician, researcher, educator, and leader in the fields of anaesthesiology, critical care medicine, and health professions education.
He is Associate Professor and Academic Head of the Department of Anaesthesiology, Pain Medicine & Critical Care at UKZN. He has previously served as President of CCSSA, and President of the College of Anaesthetists of South Africa. He is also an Honorary Fellow of CANECSA. In addition, he serves in numerous national and international leadership, governance, and advisory roles in specialist medical education and healthcare.
His academic interests include critical care decision-making, clinical reasoning, postgraduate specialist training, competency-based medical education, and assessment in anaesthesiology and critical care.
A proud South African and UKZN alumnus, Professor Gopalan has dedicated his career to advancing patient care, specialist training, and academic medicine through sustained service, leadership, and innovation.
Ilse is a physiotherapist and Educator at the University of Cape Town, with expertise in clinical education, critical care and cardiopulmonary physiotherapy. She is currently pursuing a PhD at Stellenbosch University on long-term outcomes following critical illness. Ilse is passionate about continuous learning, the education of future physiotherapists and committed to contributing to improvement of healthcare delivery in South Africa.
Silmara is a cardiorespiratory physiotherapist and academic based at the University of the Free State, South Africa. Originally from Brazil, she began her career in ICU at Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo before relocating to South Africa and working as a senior ICU physiotherapist in public hospitals for over two decades. Her clinical expertise includes the respiratory management of critically ill patients, particularly difficult-to-wean patients and the use of noninvasive ventilation.
She obtained her MSc from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2008 and subsequently transitioned into academia. She has contributed to research in accredited peer-reviewed journals and presented at international forums, including the European Respiratory Congress, and is a reviewer for both national and international journals.
Drawing on her extensive clinical experience with critically ill patients, she is committed to advancing evidence-based physiotherapy practice in intensive care units through research, teaching, and clinical collaboration. Her current research focuses on respiratory mechanics during mechanical ventilation and preventive respiratory physiotherapy.
Prof Susan Hanekom
Susan completed her BSc Physiotherapy at Stellenbosch University in 1983. Following which, she worked as a clinical physiotherapist in a variety of national and international private- and state-funded hospitals. She returned to Stellenbosch University as a lecturer in 2000. Here she completed a Master of Science (cum laude) in 2004 and PhD in 2010. She was promoted to the position of Associate-Professor in 2014, and appointed as head of Physiotherapy between 2015-2020. She received the global minds research fellowship in 2021. The focus she has brought to her academic career is grounded in her experiences as a clinician. She has published over 50 papers in national and international peer reviewed journals, and presented data at numerous international and national scientific gatherings. Susan’s research interests include cardiopulmonary rehabilitation in acute and chronic diseased populations. She was rated as an established national researcher by the National Research Foundation of South Africa, and was appointed as a member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19 in 2020. She is a member of the editorial bord of the SAJP. She has received funding from the Medical Research Council and the National research Foundation of South Africa.
Ilse Hering-Du Plessis is the Clinical Facilitator in Critical Care at Groote Schuur Hospital. With over 19 years of experience in critical care nursing, within the multidisciplinary team context, she strives to bridge the gap between dynamic nursing theory and evidence-based practice. Ilse Hering-Du Plessis holds a Bachelor in Nursing Degree (BCur) cum laude, a Bachelor with Honours (BCurHons) cum laude in Intensive Care and a Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing (PDN) cum laude in Nursing Education, all awarded to her by the University of Stellenbosch.
Portia Jordan is a full professor and executive head of the Department of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University. She holds a PhD in Nursing, Master of Business Administration, Masters in Critical Care Nursing and specialist qualifications in: Nursing Education, Health Service Management, and Nephrology Nursing. Her research focuses on critical care nursing, nephrology nursing, evidence-based practice, clinical practice guidelines, and patient safety education in nursing. She successfully supervised 88 postgraduate, master’s and doctoral graduates, and published widely in her focus area.
Portia is the co-lead of the international working group on patient safety and evidence-based practice initiatives across five (5) countries. She is the chairperson and executive board member of the Forum for University Nursing Deans in South Africa (FUNDISA). As per ministerial appointment, she is a member of the 17th South African Council of Nursing, where she serves as the Chair of the Education Committee and Vice-Chair of the Research Committee.
In 2024, she was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She is also a fellow of the Academy for Nursing in South Africa. Internationally, she is a board member of Tau Lamda Chapter and member of Alpha Beta Beta Chapter, Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Nursing Society (STTI).
Her international expertise is recognised as she is the editor of the BMC Nursing Journal, Editorial Board member and Guest Editor of the Journal of Nursing Scholarship and other national journals.
Ivan is the head of the Division of Critical Care at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town. He is a past president of the Critical Care Society of South Africa (CCSSA) and the current president of the South African Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (SASPEN). Ivan chairs the Critical Care Forum for the Western Cape Department of Health.
Belinda is currently the Critical Care Nurse Specialist for the Life Healthcare Group.
She also serves as the South African Nurse Representative on the World Federation
for Critical Care Nurses and is the Chairperson of the Critical Care Nurses Forum.
Throughout her career, Belinda has fulfilled a variety of roles in critical care nursing,
including bedside nurse, educator, and manager. Her passion lies in advancing the
nursing profession and improving the quality of critical care nursing.
Vanessa is a registered dietitian currently working as a private practicing dietitian at Groenkloof Life Hospital in Pretoria where she consults patients in the ICU, medical, surgical and adult neurological wards. She currently serves on the SASPEN council, is a past President of SASPEN, a member of the South African Critical Care Society and the European Society for parenteral and enteral nutrition (ESPEN).
She graduated from the University of Pretoria with a BSc degree in Human Genetics (2002) as well as BDietetics degree (2005). She later completed her Master of Nutrition degree at Stellenbosch University (2017). After spending 3 years in Port Elizabeth where she worked as a clinical dietitian in the Port Elizabeth Hospital Complex, she took up a post as lecturer in the Department of Human Nutrition at the University of Pretoria. In her role as lecturer, she was involved in the training of the dietetic students as well as medical students. She also assisted the department with supervision of master students. She had poster presentations internationally at both ESPEN and ERAS world congresses. She has also published articles both internationally and nationally.
A/Prof Krause is a Family Physician with a PhD and a Master’s degree in Palliative Medicine. She has 20 years of clinical experience in Palliative Medicine and 10 years of training supervision and research at the University of Cape Town. Currently, she serves as the Head of the Division of Interdisciplinary Palliative Care and Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine, Community and Emergency Care at the University of Cape Town. A/prof Krause is the convenor of the postgraduate diploma in Palliative Medicine/Care. She works clinically at Groote Schuur Hospital, providing consultations in palliative care. At Groote Schuur Hospital, she collaborates with various disciplinary teams, conducting combined ward rounds and providing consultations in palliative care throughout the 900-bed hospital. She is a board member of the African Palliative Care Association and serves as the assistant editor of the Journal of Primary Health Care and Family Medicine. Her research interests include strengthening and integrating palliative care practices across the continuum of care.
Dr Usha Lalla is an Intensivist and Pulmonologist at Tygerberg Hospital and Stellenbosch University, South Africa, where she leads the medical intensive care unit. Her academic interests focus on the management of critically ill patients with complex respiratory and infectious diseases, particularly in resource-limited settings. She has an established publication record in critical care and respiratory medicine and is actively involved in advancing evidence-based practice. Dr Lalla also holds leadership roles in postgraduate education and academic governance at Stellenbosch University and serves on the Council of the South African Thoracic Society
MBChB, DipPEC(SA), DA(SA), FCA(SA), Cert Crit Care (SA)Paed
Dr Lambrechts obtained her medical degree in 2004 at the University of Stellenbosch. In 2010 she started with her specialist anaesthesia training at the University of Cape Town and in 2014 obtained her Fellowship of the College of Anaesthesiologists of South Africa.
Her love for critical care medicine and paediatrics lead her to the paediatric ICU at Red Cross Children’s hospital in 2015 where she did a two year sub-speciality certificate in paediatric critical care. After obtaining her Cert Crit Care (SA) Paed and a short stint working as a consultant in Red Cross paediatric ICU she returned to UCT department of anaesthesia in 2018 as a full time consultant anaesthetist.
In 2023 she moved to the private sector, but continue to do anaesthetic work as well as teaching in the public sector.
Dr. Hayden Leeds is a third year pediatric critical care fellow physician at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles with a clinical and academic focus on advanced respiratory monitoring and precision ventilatory management in critically ill children. He completed his pediatric residency and earned his medical degree at Oregon Health & Science University.
Dr. Leeds’ research centers on the application of electrical impedance tomography (EIT) to guide individualized ventilatory strategies in pediatric acute respiratory failure, including PEEP optimization. He has led investigator-initiated clinical studies, secured foundation grant funding, and published across pediatric critical care, neonatology, cardiothoracic surgery, and palliative care literature. He is an invited international speaker on EIT-guided respiratory care and serves in advisory roles focused on advancing pediatric respiratory monitoring technologies.
Ellen le Roux has been working in Critical Care for 20 years. She completed her post-graduate Diploma in Critical Care in 2004 and has worked in multiple disciplines in adult Critical Care, ranging from Medical, Surgical, Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Critical Care within the private sector, and is now a Nurse Educator teaching the Postgraduate Diploma in Adult Critical Care Nursing. Ellen is passionate about training and has been involved as an instructor on the BASIC for Nurses course. Ellen has been a member of the Cape Western Branch of the Critical Care Society since 2004, and is the current branch Secretary as well as the branch representative to the Critical Care Nursing Forum.
André is a born and bred Capetonian who practices in the surgical ICU of Tygerberg Hospital. He completed his both his undergraduate and specialist training in anaesthesia at Stellenbosch university, but fell in love with critical care working at Baragwanath hospital under Prof Mathiva. He has completed a neuroanaesthesia fellowship at Addenbrookes hospital , in Cambridge UK and recently finished his Certificate in Critical Care. Professionally he is passionate about ICU ventilation strategies and renal pathology and empowering critical care nurses. Personally he is a very bad, if enthusiastic musician and an achingly slow runner. Fun fact: he was born in the same hospital he currently works in and he worries if he will ever escape.
Senior Lecturer
Alison is a qualified physiotherapist with a PhD from the University of Cape Town (2017) and an MPhil in Health Professions Education from Stellenbosch University. She is currently completing an MPhil in Health Systems at Stellenbosch University.
She has extensive clinical and research expertise in both paediatric and adult cardiorespiratory physiotherapy, critical care, and pulmonary rehabilitation. Her work focuses on improving outcomes for individuals with chronic respiratory disease and survivors of critical illness, with a strong emphasis on holistic, person-centred care.
Alison contributes actively to the advancement of physiotherapy and allied health through her involvement in several national and international committees. She is an associate editor for both the Southern African Journal of Critical Care and the South African Journal of Physiotherapy.
A committed educator and researcher, Alison is passionate about generating and sharing knowledge. She has published and presented her work widely, both nationally and internationally.
Research interests include recovery from critical illness, post intensive care syndrome, pulmonary rehabilitation, chronic respiratory disease, post tuberculosis lung disease, feedback in learning.
Jacques Malan, Emergency physician with Fellowship in South Africa and Australia currently working at C15 at Groote Schuur.
Keen interest in using and teaching POCUS.
Trained as a moral and political philosopher, Heidi is employed as a Senior Lecturer in Bioethics in the EthicsLab based in the Neuroscience Institute at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She is also an honorary research associate at the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.
The central theme of Heidi’s work is to think and enact care in the context of the academy. As a philosopher, this means conceptualising and understanding ‘care’ as an essential component of what makes us human. As an academic teacher, this means thinking deeply about how to structure a bioethics curriculum so that students have optimal opportunities for learning and development whilst also being supported to make sense of the ethics of our world. As a bioethicist, it means advocating for the integration of perspectives from care ethics into how we think about and address ethical challenges. It also means working alongside healthcare providers to understand the importance of care in building ethical resilience.
Specialist anaesthetist, qualified at University of Cape Town in 2004.
Completed my medical training at University of Stellenbosch in 1994
Sub-specialized in Critical Care at Groote Schuur Hospital in 2006 and obtained the Certificate in Critical care medicine in 2008 through the College of Medicine of South Africa.
Currently working as a senior specialist in Anaesthesia and Critical Care at Groote Schuur Hospital.
Past Chairperson of the Critical Care Society of South Africa, Western Cape Branch.
Also, the course director of the BASIC course (a two-day course introducing doctors to caring for seriously ill patients).
Interests include Trauma, Abdominal compartment syndrome, Nutrition in critical illness and Antibiotic stewardship.
PhD 2005; PG Diploma (Paediatric Palliative Medicine) 2019 [with Distinction]; Postgraduate Diploma (Health Research Ethics) 2014 [Cum Laude]; BSc Physiotherapy 1995
Brenda Morrow is a full Professor in the Department of Paediatrics & Child Health, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Brenda has special interests in interdisciplinary paediatric critical care practice and research; global health; cardiopulmonary rehabilitation; palliative care; and medical ethics. Brenda has over 170 peer reviewed publications; she is co-editor of the textbook, “Cardiopulmonary Physiotherapy in Trauma: An Evidence-based Approach”; she has written 22 book chapters; and presented at numerous national and international congresses. Brenda holds a Southern African National Research Foundation (NRF) B rating. She is immediate past-President of the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies (WFPICCS) and current President of the Critical Care Society of Southern Africa. Brenda is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Southern African Journal of Critical Care; Senior Associate Editor for Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and Associate Academic Editor of PlosOne. She is a regular reviewer for over 40 international journals and grant funding agencies. She was overall winner of the 2025 South African Women in Science Distinguished Woman Researcher Award (Natural and Engineering Sciences category).
Dr. Muhame completed his medical degree and post graduate training in Paediatrics from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda followed by paediatric critical care training at Red Cross Children’s Hospital. He later completed paediatric cardiology and cardiac critical care training at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He is currently a Staff Physician in the Cardiac Critical Care Unit at the same hospital.
His academic interests focus on the development of scalable technological solutions that support care delivery in children with heart disease and improving the quality of care in neonates with congenital heart disease. He has also had a long standing interest in point of care ultrasound and its application in the critical care environment.
Dylan Naicker is a general surgeon and intensivist at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town. Dylan enjoys the outdoor thrills of Cape Town together with his wife and four legged fluffy friends.
Paediatric Intensivist at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital.
Omy Naidoo is a registered dietician and founder of Newtricion Wellness Dieticians, which is one of
the largest dietician brands in SA. The practice has touched over 40 000 patient journeys’. Omy
qualified from UKZN with BSc and PGDip in Dietetics. He has also completed a scholarship for a
yearlong program at Duke University (USA) in Clinical Nutrition under the mentorship of Prof Paul
Wischmeyer. His interest areas include critical care, perioperative
nutrition, and nephrology. Omy is considered a leading voice in the field of dietetics working with
brands such as DSTV, SABC, ECR, 5fm, and various others. Omy regularly delivers talks at academic
events. Omy is also the host of a clinical dietetic podcast, called “Healthy
Conversations with Omy Naidoo”. The show is listened to in over 100 countries and has had over
100 000 views.
Prof Paolo Navalesi graduated cum laude in Medicine at the University of Genoa. He has a Post-graduate Research Fellowship at the Meakins-Christie Laboratories and Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is Full Professor of Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Senior Scientist at the Department of Medicine of the University of Padua, and former Scientific Director of the University Hospital of Padua. Prof Navalesi’s research focuses predominantly on acute respiratory failure and mechanical ventilation especially. He has many national and international collaborations. Based on Scopus, he has 443 publications, 24465 citations and a h-index of 61. He also contributed to several books, including 2 editions of Tobin’s “Principle and Practice of Mechanical ventilation”. He is Fellow of the European Respiratory Society (FERS) for excellence in contributions to research, education and clinical leadership.
Dr Nivisha Parag is an intensivist at Busamed Hillcrest Private Hospital, KZN, with a background in emergency medicine. Her keen interests include critical care ultrasound and teaching it, resuscitation, and leadership and followership in healthcare teams. She is also an MBA graduate and currently completing a PhD at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Dr Noor Mohamed Parker is Paediatric Critical Care Specialist in Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at Tygerberg Hospital and Stellenbosch University. He has an interest in improving critical thinking at the bedside. On faculties for teach Adult and Paediatric BASIC Courses.
Regarding the photo request, I do not provide headshots for publication. Kindly use my bio alone for the program.
CHEF | AUTHOR | BROADCASTER | MULTIMEDIA PERSONALITY
Jenny Morris — known affectionately as The Giggling Gourmet — is one of South Africa’s most recognisable culinary personalities, with a career spanning television, radio, publishing, live events and digital media.
A familiar face on international screens, Jenny has headlined Food Network series including Jenny Morris Cooks Morocco, Jenny Morris Cooks the Riviera, Jenny & Reza’s Fabulous Food Academy and From the Heart with Jenny Morris, reaching audiences in more than 140 countries.
She is a bestselling author of seven cookbooks, including her latest release, Greedy Girl, which has been nominated for a Gourmand World Cookbook Award.
Jenny has been a continuous voice on radio since 1997 and currently broadcasts on Smile 90.4FM. She is also the founder of the Giggling Gourmet CooksPlayground™, South Africa’s leading recreational and corporate cooking experience.
Her career has seen her cook for presidents, royalty and international personalities, appear at major global food festivals and partner with leading international and South African brands.
With an average monthly reach of 12.9 million, Jenny brings together entertainment, education, storytelling and authentic brand engagement.
What makes Jenny different?
She doesn’t simply promote a brand — she brings it to life.
She creates experiences, tells stories and connects people through the universal language
Dr. Brian Pandaram is a Consultant Neurosurgeon and Critical Care Specialist at Dr. George Mukhari Academic Hospital in Pretoria North, Gauteng, where he serves as Head of Unit: Neurocritical Care. In this dual role, he integrates neurosurgical expertise with specialist critical care training, overseeing the intensive management of patients with complex neurological and neurosurgical conditions.
Dr. Pandaram’s current focus is on training neurosurgery registrars in neurocritical care, strengthening the pipeline of specialists equipped to manage patients at the critical intersection of neurosurgery and intensive care.
From Yorkshire, UK and graduated from London University with MB BS and BSc(Hons) in Genetics. Moved to Cape Town in 1998 and worked as an SHO in medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital, before taking up a registrar post in anaesthetics, followed by a consultant post from 2003. Made the switch to Critical Care in 2006 and is currently Head of Clinical Unit in the Division of Critical Care at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town. Loves Critical Care and teaching; but prefers skiing, cooking, birding and being a Mum.
Alison Pieterse is a highly experienced physiotherapist with over two decades of clinical practice and a sustained dedication to advancing respiratory physiotherapy in critical care settings.
She completed her Bachelor of Sciences in Physiotherapy at the University of Stellenbosch in 2001, followed by a Master of Sciences in Physiotherapy, awarded cum laude, from the same institution in 2007. Her master’s research investigated the effect of passive thoracic flexion-rotation movement on respiratory compliance in intubated and ventilated patients. In 2018, she published a systematic scoping review in Multidisciplinary Respiratory Medicine, examining criteria for enhancing mucus transport and demonstrating her ability to synthesise evidence rigorously and translate it into clinically relevant frameworks.
Her career combines long-term frontline clinical work with a strong focus on the Medical ICU and High Care within one of South Africa’s leading academic hospitals. She is passionate about patient-centred care and is actively involved in student training, where she strives to cultivate a culture of compassion and clinical excellence in patient management.
This long-standing placement has given her deep, hands-on expertise in managing some of the most complex and critically ill patient populations in the Western Cape. She aims to contribute to the advancement of critical care management and currently has a particular interest in laryngeal dysfunction in the ICU setting.
Elri du Plooy is a Paediatric Intensivist at Tygerberg Hospital, Stellenbosch University’s Tertiary Academic Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.
She obtained her MBChB from the University of the Free State, South Africa in 2008, Diploma in Child Health (2013) and FC Paed (SA) (2017) from the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa (CMSA), as well as Master of Medicine in Paediatrics from Stellenbosch University, South Africa in 2018.
After a fellowship in Critical Care at UZ Leuven in Leuven, Belgium in 2019, she completed her subspecialist training in Paediatrics Critical Care at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa (2020-2021). Her MPhil in Paediatric Critical Care (University of Cape Town) reviewed the profile of children with traumatic brain injury admitted to Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital PICU over a 5-year period.
She joined the Tygerberg Hospital PICU team and the Stellenbosch University Department of Paediatrics and Child Health in January 2022. Her current interests include viral respiratory disease, IPC and morbidity reduction in the PICU setting.
Dr Claire Procter, MBBS, DCH, FC Paed (SA), MMed, Cert Crit Care (Paed), MPhil
Dr Procter came to South Africa as a junior doctor back in 2008. Working in a rural hospital she developed a love of paediatrics as well as for the country and decided to stay. She moved to Cape Town and worked as a medical officer at Tygerberg hospital before getting a registrar post at Red Cross. She completed both her paediatrics and paediatric intensive care studies there, had a couple of short stints back in the UK and then has worked as a paediatric intensivist at Red Cross since 2001. Her interests are holistic quality care, infection management and control and post intensive care syndrome.
Dr Andrew Redfern is a paediatrician and paediatric emergency medicine specialist based at Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Hospital, working as the clinical lead consultant in the paediatric emergency department. He is a clinician researcher and is currently involved in a number of local and international research collaborations focused on improving diagnostic approaches in children with lower respiratory tract infections. His PhD is on lung and mediastinal POCUS to assist diagnosis in childhood LRTI and TB. He is current chair of PECSA (Paediatric Emergency Care special interest group) and serves in that capacity on the Emergency Medicine Society of South Africa national executive committee. He also currently chairs the paediatric emergency medicine national curriculum working group and is the previous treasurer of the South African Paediatric Association.
Martin Ricl is a paramedic and ICU nurse by training. He was among the first to bring simulation-based medical education to the Czech Republic, and spent six years on a research project investigating patient positioning in mechanically ventilated patients at the Institute of Physiology, Charles University Prague, work that shaped his understanding of lung mechanics and bedside monitoring. He is now a recognized pioneer of Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) in critical care, serving as an external manager for Timpel and working alongside intensive care clinicians worldwide to advance its clinical adoption. Known for a hands-on, educational approach, he continues to bridge research, technology and everyday clinical practice.
Dr Asma Salloo is a paediatric intensivist at Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital with extensive clinical experience in South Africa and internationally. Her areas of specialist expertise include ECMO, cardiac intensive care, paediatric trauma, sepsis, palliative and neurocritical care. She is among few clinicians in South Africa formally qualified in paediatric ECMO. Dr Salloo has held clinical appointments at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, completed an ECMO fellowship at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and most recently served as Sectional Head of a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit in Saudi Arabia, where she led the establishment and operational development of the service.
Shamiel has been a PICU Consultant at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital since 2006 and is the current PICU Medical Director. He has varied interests, the main ones being infectious diseases, the provision of respiratory support and the management of children post cardiac surgery.
He is actively involved in the of training junior doctors and nurses. He is the Director of the Advanced Paediatric Life Support course in South Africa and a Co-ordinator of the Paediatric Basic Assessment and Support in ICU course.
Currently Paediatric Critical Care Specialist Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, Durban and Honorary Academic Staff Paediatric Dept Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, University of Kwazulu Natal, Durban SA. Specialised at Red Cross Children’s Hospital, CT and Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital UK
College Examiner for College of Paediatric Critical Care and Supervisor for Fellowship training in Paediatric Critical Care.
APLS Director for KZN.
Co author MISC COVID and PIMS 30Day DOS trials. Co author of chapter in Coovadia textbook of Paediatrics. Developed the paediatric Tracheostomy Home Care programme at IALCH.
Chairperson for NPO Medical Outreach work in KZN
Interests : Photography – especially in remote locations! Enjoys animals (except reptiles), creative arts and Self Discovery
“Lincoln Solomon heads up the Paediatric Critical Care Service at the Academic Hospitals in Bloemfontein, the Free State. He has an interest in “general” Paediatric Critical Care and has experienced the growth of the Paediatric Critical Care service in the Free State from a “one man show” to a service supported by three intensivists and subspecialists in Pulmonology and Nephrology. The Service now has capacity and accreditation to train paediatric Intensivists. He is ably flanked by Prof Mike Pienaar and Dr Mbaya Buankuna, both “home grown” intensivists.”
Dr Aayesha Soni, an adult neurologist and epileptologist is one of only two internationally trained adult epileptology sub-specialists currently practising in South Africa and the only neurologist in the country with formal training in stereo-EEG, an advanced technique used in the evaluation and treatment of complex epilepsy.
Dr Soni obtained her medical degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2014 and subsequently completed specialist training in Neurology at the University of Cape Town, earning both a Fellowship of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa and a Master of Medicine degree. In 2025, she completed the prestigious Richard S. McLachlan Clinical Fellowship in Epileptology in Canada, becoming South Africa’s first female adult epileptologist.
Her clinical interests include epilepsy surgery and neuromodulation techniques such as vagus nerve stimulation and deep brain stimulation. She is also actively involved in research, having co-authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications, and has received international recognition from both the American Academy of Neurology and the Canadian League Against Epilepsy.
Abigail Sorensen, MD, is a Pediatric Critical Care fellow in the UCSF Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and an NIH Fogarty UCGHI GloCal Fellow. She serves as Co-Principal Investigator of SPARC Global, an international pediatric sepsis study conducted in collaboration with the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators (PALISI) Global Health Subgroup. Her work focuses on improving the recognition, management, and outcomes of pediatric sepsis across diverse global settings, with ongoing research partnerships in Tanzania and Uganda. Dr. Sorensen has authored peer-reviewed publications in pediatric and global health and is an active member of PALISI and the Society for Pediatric Research. Dr. Sorensen is committed to advancing equitable critical care delivery through global collaboration, implementation science, and capacity building.
Neville Vlok is a specialist emergency physician and pre-hospital enthusiast. He currently serves as the Medical Director of a busy emergency department, president of the ECMO Society of South Africa, an educator in a variety of settings, an active researcher and consultant for aeromedical services. He holds an MMed and MPhil degree in Emergency Medicine from the University of Cape Town and a Fellow of the College of Emergency Medicine (South Africa). Neville finds particular joy in improving systems of care and advocating for expert critical care irrespective of the patient’s geography.
Liz van der Merwe is an intensivist and a lecturer at Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela Universities. She heads the Adult Critical Care Unit at Livingstone Tertiary Hospital, Gqeberha, and has over two decades of experience in intensive care medicine, medical education, and clinical research. Her research focuses on acute and chronic kidney injury, post-intensive care syndrome (PhD topic), critical care outcomes, and healthcare challenges in resource-limited settings. She is an examiner for the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa, a BASIC ICU course director, and has supervised numerous postgraduate research projects. She was awarded the Critical Care Society of Southern Africa President’s Award for her contribution to critical care in South Africa.
Sr. Zhavandre van der Merwe is the current president of the Wound Healing Association of Southern Africa. She is a PhD candidate at Murdoch University. She holds a Master’s in Wound Healing and Tissue Repair from Cardiff University and completed the IIWC course at the University of Toronto, And advanced wound care certificate at University of Freestate. With over a decade of experience in wound care, she combines clinical expertise with academic leadership.
She is the founder of 4Wounds, a specialized practice delivering holistic, personalized wound care. Sr. Zhavandre has presented and taught at national and international conferences and has several publications in both national and international journals. Her skills include clinical education, research, protocol and guideline development, and managing complex wounds. She has a special interest in surgical site infections and applies evidence-based strategies to improve healing and patient outcomes.
Nathaniel Van Wyk is a registered dietitian and Chief Dietitian (Medical) at Groote Schuur Hospital, with more than 13 years of experience in clinical nutrition. Since graduating from Stellenbosch University in 2012, he has developed a strong clinical focus in critical care nutrition, leading the nutritional management of critically ill patients and contributing to multidisciplinary care within a large tertiary academic hospital. His expertise also spans medical gastroenterology, diabetes management and stem cell transplantation, with particular interests in complex nutrition support, evidence-based practice, and improving outcomes for medically complex patients.
I am an Emergency Medicine Specialist currently working as a consultant in George Hospital. I completed my undergraduate training at the University of Stellenbosch in 2001. After completing community service, I moved to the United Kingdom and specialised in Emergency Medicine. I qualified in 2013 and worked as a consultant in Emergency Medicine at Frimley Park for 2 years before returning to South Africa and working in Pietermaritzburg as a specialist is both Critical Care and Emergency Medicine. I joined the team in George hospital in 2018 and head of the EC as well as supporting the ICU at George Hospital.
I am the regional representative for Special Interest Group for the Emergency Medicine Society of South Africa. I am also the Ultrasound course director for the Southern Cape for the past 10 years and have been involved in ultrasound training and education for more than 15 years.
Consultant intensivist Victoria Mxenge Hospital ICU, Durban, South Africa.
Honorary lecturer: University of KwaZulu-Natal department of Anaesthesiology and critical care.
Long-standing council member of Critical Care Society of Southern Africa.
Associate editor SAJCC.
Involved in teaching and training in critical care.
Clinical research interests include ICU triage, severity scoring systems, and the integration of decision-support tools into critical care practice.
Dr Lizl Veldsman, RD(SA), PhD, is a dietitian based in Cape Town, South Africa. Since 2018, she has been working in the surgical ICU at Tygerberg Hospital, following eight years at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital in a multidisciplinary ICU.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Dietetics and recently completed her PhD in Nutritional Sciences in December 2025. Her doctoral research focused on the effects of amino acid supplementation and mobilization on muscle mass in critically ill patients, which she has presented at both international and local conferences.
She currently serves as a council member of the South African Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (SASPEN) and was previously president from 2017 to 2019. She has also served as a council member of the Critical Care Society of Southern Africa.
Her professional interests include critical care nutrition, muscle preservation in critical illness, and the translation of evidence-based nutrition into clinical practice.
Ilana is a specialist children’s nurse with 18 years of experience, most of which is in critical care settings at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town. She graduated with the first UCT cohort of Clinical Master’s in Children’s Nursing in 2017, where she developed an evidence-based guideline for the prevention and treatment of catheter related infections and peritonitis in children on peritoneal dialysis. She currently works as lecturer at the Harry Crossley Children’s Nursing Development Unit (CNDU) in the Department of Paediatrics and child health, University of Cape Town. She has a passion for children and their wellbeing and believes that children should have access to appropriate, safe, and quality care, all the time, every time.
Dr Martie Wege is a Paediatric Critical Care Specialist at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town. She has worked across both high-volume tertiary and lower-resource critical care settings, with a strong interest in improving outcomes for critically ill children through practical, context-appropriate care.
She has a deep passion for teaching, training and skills development. She believes that critically ill children do better when healthcare teams practise and teach the basics exceptionally well. Her special interests include paediatric ventilation, point-of-care ultrasound and emergency stabilisation, with a focus on building confident teams who can deliver excellent care in any setting.