TopMedTalk

Joff Lacey and Imogen Fecher-Jones interview six oral abstract finalists at this years' EBPOM. Nora Cruz Rodriguez ; Association Between Participation in Remote Prehabilitation and High-Dependency Unit Length of Stay After Oesophagectomy and Radical Cystectomy: A Retrospective Cohort. Alexios Dosis ; Remote wearable monitoring as a preoperative risk assessment tool. Ned Douglas ; The Fluids, Atomo...

This month's TopMedTalk Classic is particularly topical: first broadcast back in 2018 but relevant once again after the recent news of an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Originally recorded at the Intensive Care Society State of the Art Meeting in London, Desiree Chappell and Monty Mythen speak with Dan Martin , OBE, now Professor at the University of Plymouth and Consultan...

This piece is essential listening for anyone interested in modern academic publishing. Recorded at the Collaborative Clinical Trials Meeting in Prato, Italy, TopMedTalk hosts Kate Leslie and Mike Grocott speak with Eric Rubin (Editor-in-Chief, New England Journal of Medicine) and Jocalyn Clark (International Editor, BMJ) about medical publishing. The conversation covers, engaging with clinical res...

Live from the World Congress of Anesthesiologists in Marrakesh, Kate Leslie speaks with Bruce Biccard , Nuffield Professor of Anaesthetic Science at the University of Oxford, Director of the African Perioperative Research Group, and board member of IARS and Safe Surgery South Africa. Bruce reflects on growing up in apartheid-era Cape Town, training in anaesthesia amid high-acuity care including tr...

At Euroanaesthesia in Rotterdam, TopMedTalk hosts Andy Cumpstey and Kate Leslie speak with Joana Berger-Estilita , ESAIC chair of education and training, about ESAIC's new leadership program. Developed over two years with a multidisciplinary team including ESAIC leadership and headquarters staff, the pilot addresses a gap for seasoned anaesthesiologists seeking further career progression. The retr...

At the World Congress of Anaesthesiologists (WCA) in Marrakech, Morocco, TopMedTalk co-editors In chief, Kate Leslie and Mike Grocott speak with Sydney anaesthesiologist Alwin Chuan , a member of the joint ESRA-ASRA working group on AI, about strengths and limitations of AI for regional anaesthesia and medicine. Chuan explains how generative AI is trained on vast datasets using transformer archite...

At Euroanaesthesia in Rotterdam, TopMedTalk hosts Andy Cumpsty and Kate Leslie speak with Denise Veelo Professor of Anesthesiology at the Amsterdam University Medical Center and Bernd Saugel Professor of Anesthesiology and Vice Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology in the Center of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, about two JAMA blo...

At this year's Euroanaesthesia meeting in Rotterdam, TopMedTalk host Andy Cumpsty interviews Wolfgang Buhre , Professor of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at Utrecht University Medical Center and past president of the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC). The discussion starts with a focus upon the annual ESAIC congress and its international reach, with next year's...

Andy Cumpstey and Mike Grocott interview Kate Leslie about the SNaPP study (Sugammadex, Neostigmine, and Postoperative Pulmonary Complications). SNaPP is a pragmatic randomized study run from the University of Melbourne with the ANZCA Clinical Trials Network across 45 sites in Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong. Patients aged 40+ having major abdominal or thoracic surgery (≥2 hours, overnight s...

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 the annual scientific meeting convenor Kerry Benson-Cooper and conference cultural advisor Tui Blair about planning the meeting and how Māori traditions and culture have informed not only the co...

At the SOAP meeting in Montreal, Desiree Chappell and Monty Mythen interview Dr. Marie Louise Meng , Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at Duke University Department of Anesthesiology and her former cardio-obstetric fellow Liliane Ernst , assistant professor in the Obstetric and Gynecologic Anesthesia section Wake Forest University. The conversation focuses on cardio-obstetric anesthesia, hemod...

TopMedTalk introduces our new "TopMedTalk Classics" series with a classic TopMedTalk episode from 2018 that is still prescient today. This lecture, given by Sir Bruce Keogh marked the NHS's 70th birthday, a time framed by political volatility, financial constraint, rising demand, and shifting public expectations. Keogh argues healthcare systems must adapt, highlighting the UK's strengths in medica...

The Association of Anaesthetists meeting in London was the perfect spot for us to launch our new series on Artificial Intelligence. Here, Andy Cumpstey and James Bowness discuss the new monthly series and the UK-Ireland "demand signaling" project on AI in anaesthesia, perioperative medicine and acute pain, supported by The Association. They are joined by their guest Nicky De Beer , The Association...

Settle yourself in for another fascinating glimpse behind the curtain as TopMedTalk's perioperative profiles focus upon the incredible journey of Vanessa Beavis. Recorded at ANZCA's recent annual scientific meeting in Auckland, TopMedTalk host Andy Cumpsty interviews anesthetist and former ANZCA President Vanessa Beavis about her path from growing up in South Africa to moving to Auckland in 1993....

From the World Congress of Anesthesiologists in Marrakech, TopMedTalk hosts Mike Grocott and Kate Leslie discuss perioperative cardiac risk assessment with Hilary Grocott , Professor and Head of, The Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics (University of British Columbia) and Michelle Chew Professor of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm...

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...