TopMedTalk

At the ANZCA Annual Scientific Meeting in Auckland, Kate Leslie and Andy Cumpstey discuss ANZCA's Emerging Leaders Conference (ELC), a retreat-style program held immediately before the ASM for clinicians within five years of achieving FANZCA, with allowances for career disruptions.
Their guests, Dr Saana Taylor FANZCA and Dr Vik Singh FANZCA, co-conveners of this year's ELC, describe shaping this year's New Zealand-hosted ELC with an Aotearoa focus, naming it Te Herenga Matua ("the pursuit of consciousness") and emphasizing collaboration, communication, wellbeing, compassion, and equity.
The program included Māori and Pacific health sessions, leadership self-reflection, and an interactive session challenging fixed leadership "styles," alongside strong mentorship and networking with senior college leaders. Highlights included the openness of delegates, relationship-building, and a keynote on leadership "outside the box." Next year's ELC will be in the Adelaide Hills, with applications opening in September.
More here:
https://www.anzca.edu.au/fellowship/information-for-new-fellows/emerging-leaders-conference
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The 2026 International Practicum on Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing will be held at the Balmer Lawn Hotel in Brockenhurst, UK, from September 16th to 18th this year. It is organised by iPOETTS , the international perioperative testing and training society.
Come and join us at this premier educational event designed for clinicians, scientists, and healthcare professionals interested in sport, exercise, and perioperative medicine.
This is an International Perioperative Testing and Training Society accredited event so when you attend you can get your iPOETTS accreditation, showing that you are a practitioner who has reached a high, standardized level of competence in performing and interpreting Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing (CPET) for patients preparing for major surgery.
Go now to http://www.ebpom.org

From the 58th annual meeting of the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) in Montreal, Mike Grocott and new co-host Joe Larvin speak with SOAP president Ron George about SOAP's growth to over 1,000 attendees and its international, collaborative community.
George outlines his career from Dalhousie to UCSF and back to Canada as director of obstetric anesthesia at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, highlighting its high-risk referral practice and large, internationally diverse fellowship program. He reflects on his presidency's focus on mission alignment and partnerships, including work with the New York State Society of Anesthesia, discussions with the California Society of Anesthesia, and a planned memorandum of understanding with the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) to support evidence-based global education.
He also discusses formative work in low- and middle-income settings, advocacy, peripartum anesthesiologist roles, and meeting highlights such as trainees, pain during cesarean delivery panels, and the Gerard W. Ostheimer Lecture.
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The 2026 International Practicum on Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing will be held at the Balmer Lawn Hotel in Brockenhurst, UK, from September 16th to 18th this year. It is organised by iPOETTS , the international perioperative testing and training society.
Come and join us at this premier educational event designed for clinicians, scientists, and healthcare professionals interested in sport, exercise, and perioperative medicine.
This is an International Perioperative Testing and Training Society accredited event so when you attend you can get your iPOETTS accreditation, showing that you are a practitioner who has reached a high, standardized level of competence in performing and interpreting Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing (CPET) for patients preparing for major surgery.
Go now to http://www.ebpom.org

This classic TopMedTalk piece was originally cast in April 2020.
The debate 'Direct laryngoscopes should be consigned to history', was hosted by The Royal College Of Anaesthetists and carried out by our two guests on this piece, where the debate is outlined in advance.
We get into the advantages and challenges behind the two techniques; video laryngoscopy and direct laryngoscopy. The conversation explores the fact that these skills are a key part of the job of practitioners, are we "de-skilling" the profession in an overly enthusiastic race toward new technology or are some resisting it simply because it's not what they are used to?
Presented by Joff Lacey and Monty Mythen with their two guests; Professor Tim Cook, Consultant in Anaesthesia and ICM, Royal United Hospitals, Bath and Dr William Harrop-Griffiths, St Mary's Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Live from Euroanaesthesia 2026 in Rotterdam, Kate Leslie and Andy Cumpstey speak with Laszlo Vutskits and Hugh Hemmings ahead of the "Hot Topics in General Anaesthesiology" lecture.
Vutskits discusses reports of devastating neurologic outcomes after minor procedures in previously healthy patients, linked in a Spanish series to a shared mitochondrial DNA haplotype traced to Venezuela, including a rare ND4 complex I mutation; cybrid and fibroblast experiments showed clinically relevant sevoflurane rapidly suppresses oxidative phosphorylation but reversibly on washout, while propofol (tested without lipid) did not.
Hemmings highlights the DAS 2026 airway management guidance advocating video laryngoscopy as first-line for routine and difficult intubation and emphasizes continuous oxygen delivery during intubation, prompting debate about skill retention and global feasibility.
We reference this classic episode of TopMedTalk: https://topmedtalk.libsyn.com/-sunday-special-should-direct-laryngoscopy-be-consigned-to-the-history-books
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The 2026 International Practicum on Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing will be held at the Balmer Lawn Hotel in Brockenhurst, UK, from September 16th to 18th this year. It is organised by iPOETTS , the international perioperative testing and training society.
Come and join us at this premier educational event designed for clinicians, scientists, and healthcare professionals interested in sport, exercise, and perioperative medicine.
This is an International Perioperative Testing and Training Society accredited event so when you attend you can get your iPOETTS accreditation, showing that you are a practitioner who has reached a high, standardized level of competence in performing and interpreting Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing (CPET) for patients preparing for major surgery.
Go now to http://www.ebpom.org

Recorded live at the ANZCA Annual Scientific Meeting in Auckland, Kate Leslie interviews Professor Alan Merry for a perioperative profile, covering his retirement from clinical practice, ongoing research supervision, and work on environmental sustainability.
Merry recounts being raised by a single mother in Zimbabwe, studying medicine at the Godfrey Huggins School of Medicine in Harare, and moving to New Zealand amid the Rhodesian Bush War. He describes entering anaesthesia after initially planning psychiatry, then becoming involved in New Zealand medical manslaughter law reform following prosecutions of clinicians, helping achieve the Crimes Amendment Act 1997's higher "major departure" threshold.
He also discusses co-authoring "Error, Medicine and the Law" with Alexander McCall Smith, establishing New Zealand's Health Quality & Safety Commission, and international quality work through WFSA, the Global Oximetry Project, and the WHO surgical safety initiative that produced the surgical safety checklist, including its Auckland implementation.
--
The 2026 International Practicum on Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing will be held at the Balmer Lawn Hotel in Brockenhurst, UK, from September 16th to 18th this year. It is organised by iPOETTS , the international perioperative testing and training society.
Come and join us at this premier educational event designed for clinicians, scientists, and healthcare professionals interested in sport, exercise, and perioperative medicine.
This is an International Perioperative Testing and Training Society accredited event so when you attend you can get your iPOETTS accreditation, showing that you are a practitioner who has reached a high, standardized level of competence in performing and interpreting Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing (CPET) for patients preparing for major surgery.
Go now to http://www.ebpom.org