Our Team

Simon Finfer, Australia

Simon is Director of APSA and Professorial Fellow in the Critical Care and Trauma Division at The George Institute in Sydney, Australia. He is a practicing critical care physician with an appointment as a Senior Staff Specialist at Royal North Shore Hospital and Director of Intensive Care at the Sydney Adventist Hospital. Simon is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Sydney Medical School and Editor of The Oxford Textbook of Critical Care (2nd Ed.), the Critical Care Section Editor for The Oxford Textbook of Medicine (6th Ed.)

Bala venkatesh, australia

Bala Venkatesh is Director of Intensive care at the Wesley Hospital; Pre-Eminent specialist in Intensive Care Medicine at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane; Professor of Intensive Care Medicine at the University of Queensland and at the University of New South Wales; Professorial Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health, Sydney Australia; Adjunct Professor, St John. Medical College Research Institute, Bangalore, India.

He has completed Fellowship training in Internal Medicine, Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine.  He then undertook a research degree from the University of Birminghan, UK which led to the award of an MD.  He pioneered the development of a continuous blood gas monitoring system which reached clinical application.

He served as the President for the College of Intensive Care Medicine of Australia and New Zealand between 2014-2016.  

He led the international ADRENAL trial which is the largest septic shock trial to date. This was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. He has served on Management and Data Safety monitoring Committees of several randomised controlled trials and as a scientific reviewer for the major journals.  He leads the task force in the State of Queensland for control of Sepsis. During Covid, he was instrumental in setting up many RCTs in India and Nepal through partnerships, leading to development of new therapies.

He has published more than 300 papers, 40 book chapters and authored 2 books. He has supervised 8 PhD students.

Naomi Hammond, Australia

Naomi is Treasurer of APSA and is the Operations Lead and a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Critical Care Division at The George Institute. She also works part-time as the Intensive Care Clinical Research Manager at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney. Naomi holds an appointment as a Conjoint Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, is the Vice-Chair of the ANZICS-CTG Intensive Care Research Coordinator Interest Group, An Editorial Board Member for Australian Critical Care Journal, and sits on the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses (ACCCN) National Research Advisory Panel.

Naomi is an early career researcher with a strong academic record that includes over 40 publications, numerous scholarships and awards, and funding totaling over 6Million AUD. Naomi’s Ph.D. examined knowledge translation of fluid resuscitation research into critical care practice. Naomi’s main research interests include fluid resuscitation, fever management, TRIPS, health economics, sepsis, and long-term outcomes post-critical illness. Naomi has experience supervising and mentoring medical trainees, nursing staff, Ph.D., Masters, and medical students in both the clinical and academic environment.

Brett Abbenbroek, Australia

Brett is Secretary of APSA and the Australian Sepsis Network Program Manager and has extensive emergency and critical care clinical, education and management experience. He has worked in Nepal, Vanuatu, China, and Croatia to establish cardiac surgical and critical care programs. Concurrently, Brett has held a range of health policy, planning, project management, digital health, and clinical safety advisory roles. A health service planning and management consultancy business followed, leading to project manager roles on a series of national eHealth and electronic medication safety programs.

Lowell Ling, Hong Kong

Lowell is leading the ASPA Working Group on Research, Advocacy, and Awareness and is a Clinical Lecturer at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and currently works as an Intensivist at Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong. He has a research interest in sepsis and is working on projects on epidemiology and genomic approaches to sepsis.

Louise Thwaites, Vietnam

Louise is leading the ASPA Working Group on Guidelines and Quality and is a clinical researcher and member of the Emerging Infections group at OUCRU. She is an associate professor in the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health at the University of Oxford and an honorary consultant at Oxford University Hospitals Trust.

Abi Deane, Thailand

Abi is a critical care nurse who has worked as a researcher with Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) since 2018. Since 2014 Abi has been based in South Asia where she has been completing her doctorate in health systems research and critical care medicine. Her work combines translational research with health informatics and implementation science, with a focus on how real-time data from agile surveillance platforms can empower communities of practice to undertake quality improvement and research to improve the quality of care for critically unwell patients. Abi’s doctoral work directly led to national registries for evaluating and improving the quality of care for patients following acute myocardial infarction and major laparotomy surgery being established in Sri Lanka, regional work in Ethiopia, and the establishment of a registry for critical care in Pakistan. She was awarded the UK Intensive Care Societies Gold medal award for research in 2019. Abi is chair and a founding trustee of a non-profit organization and UK charity Network for Improving Critical care Systems and Training (NICST) in low- and middle-income countries and supports a network of over 150 hospitals in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Arjen Dondorp, Thailand

Arjen holds a ‘Doctoral’ in Medicine from University of Amsterdam, and a Ph.D. from University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Since November 2000, Professor Dondorp has joined the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, and currently is Deputy Director and Head of the Malaria and Critical Illness Department. He is also a Professor of Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford. His main research interests include the pathophysiology and treatment of severe malaria, antimalarial drug resistance (in particular artemisinin and multidrug resistance in Plasmodium falciparum) and the improvement of intensive care practice in developing countries. Professor Dondorp has been chairing the Technical Expert Group on Antimalarial Drug Resistance and Containment (now renamed Drug Efficacy and Response) for the WHO Global Malaria Program in Geneva since 2012. He is also a member of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) working group on the development of Intensive Care Medicine in resource-poor countries.

Rashan Haniffa, Sri Lanka

Chair of Critical Care Medicine and Health Systems Research, Centre for Inflammation Research. Rashan's research focus is to improve care for critically ill patients globally by enabling a community of practice that uses a common data platform for continuous data driven evaluation, evidence generation and practice change. Rashan co-leads the Wellcome UKRI/MRC Collaboration for Research, Implementation and Training in Asia and Africa (CCAA). This research consortium seeks to develop and implement near real-time digital healthcare registries, undertake population health surveillance and interventional research in LMICs. Rashan trained in medicine at the University of Colombo and subsequently completed training as a critical care physician and anaesthetist in the UK. Rashan was awarded a PhD scholarship by the University of Oxford, where his doctoral work was on developing methods for continuous healthcare evaluation in resource-limited settings. During this time he co-founded NICS-MORU, a not-for-profit research unit based in Sri Lanka, that develops and curates digital registries to strengthen research capacity and facilitate data-driven service improvement in Asia and Africa. Rashan works clinically as a consultant in intensive care medicine at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University Hospital, Sri Lanka and at University College Hospitals London.

Ratapum Champunot, Thailand

Ratapum is Consultant physician in Pulmonary and Critical Care Unit in Bangkok Hospital, Phitsanulok, Thailand. Ratapum specialises in pulmonary and critical care, with a particular interest in sepsis and rapid response systems. In 2016, he was one of two winners in the Individuals category at the Global Sepsis Awards, recognizing his achievements in line with the aims of the World Sepsis Declaration and World Sepsis Day Movement.

Tan Toh Leong, Malaysia

Tan is a Associate Professor and Consultant Emergency Physician currently working at the Department of Emergency Medicine, National University of Malaysia. His research interest is in Sepsis, Infection, Emergency Critical Care, Translational Research, Point-of-care test, Molecular Biology, and Antibiotic stewardship. He is also the current President for Malaysian Sepsis Alliance.

Brett Abbenbroek, Australia

Brett is the Sepsis Australia and Asia Pacific Sepsis Alliance Program Manager, and is on the Executive Board of the Global Sepsis Alliance. Brett has extensive emergency and critical care clinical, education, management and health systems planning experience, including working in Nepal, Vanuatu, China and Croatia to establish cardiac surgical and critical care programs, and guide health system reform. Concurrently, Brett has held a range of health policy, planning, project management, digital health and clinical safety advisory roles. Post his PhD he established a health service planning and management consultancy business, leading to program management of a series of national eHealth and electronic medication safety programs, quality and health services accreditation standards, and involvement in translational research programs. Currently Brett is responsible for implementation of the Australian Stopping Sepsis National Action Plan which involves extensive collaboration with consumer partners, health services, professional and academic organisations and government with a mission to reduce the burden of sepsiis.

Naomi Hammond, Australia

Naomi is Treasurer of APSA and is the Operations Lead and a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Critical Care Division at The George Institute. She also works part-time as the Intensive Care Clinical Research Manager at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney. Naomi holds an appointment as a Conjoint Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, is the Vice-Chair of the ANZICS-CTG Intensive Care Research Coordinator Interest Group, An Editorial Board Member for Australian Critical Care Journal, and sits on the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses (ACCCN) National Research Advisory Panel.

Naomi is an early career researcher with a strong academic record that includes over 40 publications, numerous scholarships and awards, and funding totaling over 6Million AUD. Naomi’s Ph.D. examined knowledge translation of fluid resuscitation research into critical care practice. Naomi’s main research interests include fluid resuscitation, fever management, TRIPS, health economics, sepsis, and long-term outcomes post-critical illness. Naomi has experience supervising and mentoring medical trainees, nursing staff, Ph.D., Masters, and medical students in both the clinical and academic environment.

Marvin Zick, Germany

Marvin is General Manager of the Global Sepsis Alliance and has a background in Business Administration. He is responsible for all communications, websites, World Sepsis Day, World Sepsis Congress, and more.

SIMONE MANCINI, ITALY

Simone has joined the Global Sepsis Alliance as Coordinator Regional Sepsis Alliances in October 2019. He has an extensive background in public affairs, external communications, and project management which he will put to good use to coordinate the work of the Regional Sepsis Alliances and the implementation of national sepsis strategies.

KATJA COUBALL, GERMANY

Katja is graphic designer and social media manager at the Global Sepsis Alliance. She is responsible for nearly all visuals you see - from the APSA logo to the World Sepsis Day Infographics.