Ganesh Suntharalingam (born March 1967) is a British anaesthetist, the president of the Intensive Care Society and the former medical lead of North West London Critical Care Network. In 2006 he led the successful treatment of six volunteers who had become critically ill after being given a new drug at a private trials unit within the grounds of Northwick Park Hospital where he worked. The editor of New England Journal of Medicine later stated that “all six volunteers survived in part because of the extraordinary intensive care delivered during the critical stages of their illness”. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Intensive care medicine, usually called critical care medicine, is a medical specialty that deals with seriously or critically ill patients who have, are at risk of, or are recovering from conditions that may be life-threatening. It includes providing life support, invasive monitoring techniques, resuscitation, and end-of-life care. Doctors in this specialty are often called intensive care physicians, critical care physicians, or intensivists.
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organisation. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. Cancer Research UK conducts research using both its own staff and grant-funded researchers. It also provides information about cancer and runs campaigns aimed at raising awareness and influencing public policy.
Northwick Park Hospital (NWPH) is a major National Health Service hospital situated in the town of Harrow, North West London, managed by the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust. It is located off Watford Road in the London Borough of Brent; closely bordering the London Borough of Harrow.
Dalteparin is a low molecular weight heparin. It is marketed as Fragmin. Like other low molecular weight heparins, dalteparin is used for prophylaxis or treatment of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism to reduce the risk of a stroke or heart attack. Dalteparin acts by potentiating the activity of antithrombin III, inhibiting formation of both Factor Xa and thrombin. It is normally administered by self-injection.
Theralizumab is an immunomodulatory drug developed by immunologist Thomas Hünig of the University of Würzburg. It was withdrawn from development after inducing severe inflammatory reactions as well as chronic organ failure in the first-in-human study by Parexel in London in March 2006. The developing company, TeGenero Immuno Therapeutics, a spin-off of the University of Würzburg around immunologist Thomas Hünig, co-founder and chief scientific officer (CSO) Thomas Hanke and chief executive officer (CEO) Benedikte Hatz went bankrupt later that year. The commercial rights were then acquired by a Russian startup, TheraMAB. The drug was renamed TAB08. Phase I and II clinical trials have been completed for arthritis and clinical trials have been initiated for cancer.
An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensive care medicine.
Healthcare in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter, with England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each having their own systems of publicly funded healthcare, funded by and accountable to separate governments and parliaments, together with smaller private sector and voluntary provision. As a result of each country having different policies and priorities, a variety of differences have developed between these systems since devolution.
The British Association for Immediate Care (BASICS) is an organisation which has the stated aim to encourage and aid the formation and extension of immediate care schemes. The British Association for Immediate Care was founded as a charity in 1977 and combines bringing people together who have an interest in pre-hospital immediate care with supporting and promoting regional and local immediate care schemes across the UK.
Healthcare in England is mainly provided by the National Health Service (NHS), a public body that provides healthcare to all permanent residents in England, that is free at the point of use. The body is one of four forming the UK National Health Service, as health is a devolved matter; there are differences with the provisions for healthcare elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and in England it is overseen by NHS England. Though the public system dominates healthcare provision in England, private health care and a wide variety of alternative and complementary treatments are available for those willing and able to pay.
CareFlight is an air medical service headquartered in Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.
AllTrials is a project advocating that clinical research adopt the principles of open research. The project summarizes itself as "All trials registered, all results reported": that is, all clinical trials should be listed in a clinical trials registry, and their results should always be shared as open data.
Vikram Harshad Patel FMedSci is an Indian psychiatrist and researcher best known for his work on child development and mental disability in low-resource settings. He is the Co-Founder and former Director of the Centre for Global Mental Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Co-Director of the Centre for Control of Chronic Conditions at the Public Health Foundation of India, and the Co-Founder of Sangath, an Indian NGO dedicated to research in the areas of child development, adolescent health and mental health. Since 2024, he has been the Paul Farmer Professor and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, where he was previously the Pershing Square Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine. He was awarded a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellowship in 2015. In April 2015, he was listed as one of the world's 100 most influential people by TIME magazine.
Paul Ellis Marik is an American physician and former professor of medicine. Until his resignation in January 2022, he served as chair of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia, and was also a critical care doctor at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. His research interests include sepsis and tissue oxygenation. In August 2023 the American Board of Internal Medicine informed Marik his certification was to be revoked for spreading misinformation. The revocation followed in August 2024.
Mark Charles Rogers is an American physician, medical entrepreneur, professor, and hospital administrator. He is a pediatrician, anesthesiologist, and cardiologist with a specialty in critical care medicine. With a medical career focused on pediatric intensive care, Rogers was founder of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital, working there from 1977 to 1991. He concurrently served as chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine beginning in 1980 and was a professor of anesthesiology and pediatrics throughout his tenure at Johns Hopkins.
Joseph Charles Stoddart was an English anaesthetist and intensive care specialist, who played a significant role in the development of intensive care in the UK. He spent most of his career at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he established one of the UK's earliest dedicated intensive care units in 1970. He was a founding member and early chair of the Intensive Care Society.
The treatment and management of COVID-19 combines both supportive care, which includes treatment to relieve symptoms, fluid therapy, oxygen support as needed, and a growing list of approved medications. Highly effective vaccines have reduced mortality related to SARS-CoV-2; however, for those awaiting vaccination, as well as for the estimated millions of immunocompromised persons who are unlikely to respond robustly to vaccination, treatment remains important. Some people may experience persistent symptoms or disability after recovery from the infection, known as long COVID, but there is still limited information on the best management and rehabilitation for this condition.
The Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy is a large-enrollment clinical trial of possible treatments for people in the United Kingdom admitted to hospital with severe COVID-19 infection. The trial was later expanded to Indonesia, Nepal and Vietnam. The trial has tested ten interventions on adults: eight repurposed drugs, one newly developed drug and convalescent plasma.
Pierre Kory is an American critical care physician who gained attention during the COVID-19 pandemic for advocating widespread off-label use of certain drugs as treatments for COVID-19, as president and co-founder of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC). Kory testified twice to the U.S. Senate regarding COVID-19. During his testimony in December 2020, Kory erroneously claimed that the antiparasitic medication ivermectin was a "wonder drug" with "miraculous effectiveness" against COVID-19.
Emma Harriet Baker is a British professor of clinical pharmacology and consultant physician in internal medicine at St George's Hospital, London. She has a specialist interest in people who have multiple medical conditions at the same time and take several medications, with a particular focus on lung disease. She is director of the UK's first BSc in clinical pharmacology, clinical vice president of the British Pharmacological Society and training programme director at Health Education England.
Anthony Gordon is a British clinician scientist and the Chair of Anaesthesia & Critical Care at Imperial College London and works as an intensive care consultant at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.