TopMedTalk

At the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) meeting in Montreal, TopMedTalk hosts Desiree Chappell and Mike Grocott interview SOAP board member Dr. Dan Katz , an obstetric anesthesiologist at Mount Sinai, outgoing annual meeting chair and incoming vice president. Katz reports record attendance—over 900 preregistrations and nearly 1,100 total—plus standing-room sessions and revi...

At the 58th Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) meeting in Montreal, TopMedTalk guest host Desiree Chappell and co-editor-in-chief Mike Grocott interview Dr. Grace Lim, SOAP vice president/president-elect and new University of Utah department chair. They discuss her priorities for her upcoming presidency, healthcare's shifting challenges, highlighting the Frederick W. Hehre Le...

Our coverage of The World Congress of Anesthesiologists (WCA) in Marrakesh continues. Andy Cumpstey and Kate Leslie discuss high-risk surgical patients with anesthesiologists Debra Leung (The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne) and Duminda Wijeysundera (St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto). They explore how "high risk" extends beyond mortality (noting ~2% elective major surgery mortality in midd...

At the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) and Faculty of Pain Medicine (FPM) held in Auckland, New Zealand, Kate Leslie and Andy Cumpstey interview incoming ANZCA president Tanya Selak and incoming FPM Dean Michael Veltman about their goals in the next two years and the challenges ahead, and their appreciation of the hard work and commitmen...

At the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) meeting in Montreal, Desiree Chappell and Mike Grocott interview Meghan MacCleary, Obstetrician-Gynaecologist with Banner Health in Phoenix, about multidisciplinary collaboration to improve maternal outcomes. Dr MacCleary describes her high-risk tertiary practice (about 4,000 deliveries/year; 25–26% C-sections) and decision-making for...

New Presenter Amy Gomes and Andy Cumpstey interview this year's WFSA scholars. We speak with Drs Gabriela Queiroz Do Amaral, Emyedu Andrew, Jedniphat Intrapongpan, and Loreen Sharma. The WFSA Scholarship Programme offers valuable opportunities for early-career anaesthesiologists from low- and middle-income countries to attend international and regional meetings. Find out more now about this exciti...

Perioperative Profiles, a popular monthly series on TopMedTalk in which we speak with the giants of perioperative medicine. This month Kate Leslie speaks with Denny Levett, Professor in Perioperative Medicine and Critical Care at the University of Southampton and a Consultant in Perioperative Medicine at Southampton University Hospital NHS Foundation trust (UHS). She discusses her roles in Southam...

At the 19th World Congress of the Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WCSA 2026) in Marrakesh, TopMedTalk welcomes Desiree Chappell back alongside Kate Leslie to interview Professor Palesa Motshabi-Chakane , Associate Professor and Head of Anaesthesiology at the University of the Witwatersrand and her colleague, Dr Mullai Slave a PhD candidate at University of the Witwatersrand. They discuss a study...

Live from the 19th World Congress of Anaesthesiologists (WCA 2026) in Marrakesh with over 4,000 delegates from 150 countries, TopMedTalk's Kate Leslie and Mike Grocott interview Professor Adrian Gelb , past World Federation of the Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) president, about his career from South Africa to Canada and UCSF and his focus on lower-resource settings, patient safety, and WHO...

Our coverage of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists annual conference begins with an exclusive conversation with this year's recipients of the WFSA Blood Health Innovation Award, Vijay Anand Ismavel and Ann Miriam Devarathnam. Andy Cumpstey finds out about their collaborative project with Kerala Digital University to develop an intraoperative auto-transfusion device, designed t...

This piece sees the launch of a new series on TopMedTalk: we're delving further into the world of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare and we're going to do so at least once a month. Coming from the Association of Anaesthetists in London, Andy Cumpstey welcomes back former TopMedTalk Co-editor in Chief, Desiree Chappell , alongside editor-in-chief Professor Mike Grocott and Associate Professor Ja...

Part two of our retrospective on TopMedTalk's coverage of last year's fascinating ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2025 in San Antonio, Texas, USA. This is part two of a two part piece. Part 1 is here: https://topmedtalk.libsyn.com/anesthesiology-2025-digest-part-1 This podcast contains clips and discussion from the following podcasts in our free archive: Exciting news from Desiree Chappell https://topmedtalk.libs...

A look back on the TopMedTalk coverage of last year's incredible ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2025 in San Antonio, Texas, USA. This is part one of a two part piece. Featuring clips and discussion from the following podcasts: Pediatric Airway Management Advances: Insights from Annery Garcia-Marcinkiewicz https://topmedtalk.libsyn.com/pediatric-airway-management-advances-insights-from-annery-garcia-marcinkiewicz...

TopMedTalk is proud to present Perioperative Profiles. This month we speak with Rupert Pearse , OBE, professor of intensive care medicine at Queen Mary University of London and a consultant at Royal London Hospital, known for his research on improving outcomes in high-risk surgical patients. In this fascinating piece we speak about his career in perioperative and critical care medicine. Raised in...

TopMedTalk are proud to present The Siobhan Mythen Plenary Lecture, taken from our coverage of Evidence Based Perioperative Medicine (EBPOM) Ireland 2025. Professor Ellen O'Sullivan trained in anaesthesiology and intensive care in UK and USA and is now a Consultant Anaesthesiologist at St James's Hospital Dublin, Ireland, affiliated to Trinity College Dublin. She specializes in airway management a...

At the Royal College of Anaesthetists' Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC) Perioperative Leads Day in London, host Andy Cumpstey speaks with James White , a perioperative medicine clinician (and qualified general practitioner) working within the NHS in Cheshire and Merseyside, serving as Clinical Lead for Perioperative Medicine and contributing to national improvement work with the Centre for Per...

At the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2025 meeting in San Antonio, TopMedTalk hosts Andy Cumpstey and Kate Leslie interviewed Professor of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care at University of California, San Francisco, Adrian Gelb , this year's Ellison Pierce Lecturer. Dr Gelb recounts training in South Africa, work in England and Canada, and how he was steered into neuroanesthesia at a high-volume cerebral aneury...

Andy Cumpstey is joined by Christian Macutkiewicz Consultant General, HPB and Hernia Surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary , Director of The Gallstone Clinic and Manchester Hernia at Spire Manchester Hospital and the incoming President of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland , and Dimitris Damaskos Consultant General Surgeon within the Department of Surgery at the Royal Infirma...

In this episode of TopMedTalk, hosted by Andy Cumpstey at the anaesthesia research meeting in Birmingham, we dive into drug allergy and its mislabeling with Louise Savic , consultant anaesthetist and NIHR doctoral researcher at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, UK, who specialises in drug allergy and peri-operative anaphylaxis, and Tom Abbott , clinical senior lecturer in anaesthesia and peri-op...

Andy Cumpstey welcomes Joseph Alderman , a clinical lecturer in anaesthesia at the University of Birmingham, to discuss the hurdles AI faces in the healthcare sector. Dr. Alderman , who has a background in cell biology and immunometabolism, shares his insights into why AI technologies often fail to reach patients. He identifies three primary challenges: misalignment between AI development and heal...

Michelle Chew is a Professor of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm, Sweden, and editor for the British Journal of Anaesthesia. Hear her sharing her Perioperative Profile on TopMedTalk with Andy Cumpstey. After initial anaesthesia training in Denmark, she moved to Lund University, Sweden , combining clinical work and research, later establishing her own...

ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2025, the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), and Desiree Chappell hosts Professor Michael Scott from the University of Rochester and Dr Wael Saasouh , director of research for NorthStar Anesthesia. The discussion centers on the evolution of patient-centered monitoring, the importance of continuous hemodynamic monitoring, and the broader implications...

Desiree Chappell , Kate Leslie , and Mike Grocott welcome Harriet W. Hopf , a physician-scientist and professor of anesthesiology and adjunct professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Utah, UK. Dr Hopf is known for her leadership in academic governance, medical education, and healthcare research. She shares insights on her distinguished career focusing on surgical site infections an...

This piece takes us to The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) annual meeting in San Antonio, ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2025 where Andy Cumpstey is joined by co-host Desiree Chappell and guest Dr Joyce A. Wahr — Professor Emeritus of Anesthesiology at the University of Minnesota Medical School (Minneapolis, USA) and former Executive Medical Director of Perioperative Services at M Health Fairview and...

Kate Leslie and Andy Cumpstey join special guests at the British Journal of Anaesthesia's annual meeting in Dublin, Ireland. The discussion focuses on the experiences and motivations of three BJA editorial fellows; Allison Janda , Anesthesiologist and Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan; Brett Doleman , clinical academic and anaesthetist from the University of Nottingham; and Christi...