Global Intensive Care Initiative (GICI)

Ross Callum Freebairn, BHB, MBChB, Dip Obs, FRCPE, FANZCA, FCICM,

Melissa is a lecturer at Monash University, and has extensive experience as a clinical teacher within the medical ward and intensive care environments and has taught and coached pre-registration through to post-graduate nursing students. Melissa found her passion for intensive care nursing early on in her nursing career and has completed a Masters of Nursing via Research exploring the ICU survivor’s perspective on post ICU support. More recently, Melissa has worked as a quality improvement consultant for acute deterioration at a large metropolitan hospital.

Dr Nudrat Rashid qualified at Ahmadu Bello Hospital, Nigeria and undertook ICU training at Royal North Shore Hospital and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Dr Rashid is a Staff Specialist at the RPA ICS and is also the Director of the Organ Donation and Transplantation Unit at RPAH. She has a keen interest in Education and Donation medicine.

David commenced as an intensivist at Monash Health since 2011, with an interest in peri-operative
care, data driven quality improvement, innovative education and translating research into practice.
He was the inaugural chair of the Victorian Intensive Care Education Network (VICEN), an executive
for the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS), and has travelled internationally
to learn modern strategies that enhance long term, functional outcomes for the critically ill, and
continues to pursue learnings about incorporating AI in healthcare.
David is responsible for critical care junior medical staff recruitment, TPN service, comprehensive care
national standard and is involved in a number of quality and business improvement programs.
Outside Monash Health, he currently serves as the Chair of International relations for the Australian
and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS), the lead for Asia for the Global Intensive Care
Initiative (GICI), and was a Visual Abstract editor on editorial board of Critical Care Medicine (CCM).
He also chairs the Asia Pacific Critical Care Summit in Singapore annually, attended by 15 societal
representatives of the region. He was recently elected as Council member of the World Federation of
Intensive and Critical Care (WFICC), representing the Asia Pacific region

Dr Eamon Raith is an Intensive Care Consultant at Mackay Hospital and Health Service, a Clinical Senior Lecturer at The University of Adelaide and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre, Monash University.

In addition to his roles in Australia, Dr. Raith holds honorary appointments at University College London and previously at the University of Oxford, contributing to the global critical care medicine program within the Oxford University Global Surgery Group. Dr. Raith is deeply involved in global health and global intensive care medicine programs, and is currently the Research Co-Lead for the ANZICS Global Intensive Care Initiative.

Professor Reade is Director of the Greater Brisbane Clinical School of the University of Queensland and until 2021 with the rank of Brigadier was Director General of the Health Reserve of the Australian Army. He continues to lead an expanding research program focussed on military trauma medicine based at UQ, covering trauma systems design, blood and fluid resuscitation in trauma, and traumatic brain injury. Since 2011 he has been the Professor of Military Medicine and Surgery at the ADF’s Joint Health Command, and teaches on the US Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences course in Global Health Engagement. He has worked extensively in international partnership settings, including those with limited resources, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Timor, the Solomon Is, and PNG. He is an intensive care physician at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, and an anaesthetist at Ipswich Hospital.

MBChB, M Med FCP(SA), FRACP, FCICM, DipNeph (London), PG Dip Echo

Prof Botha completed his undergraduate and post graduate training at Stellenbosch University South Africa. He subsequently completed further training at the Hammersmith Hospital in nephrology and a Critical Care fellowship at the Vancouver General Hospital, University of British Columbia. He has been working in Australia since 1996 and has been Director of ICU at Peninsula Health since 1999. He has diverse interests including medical education, nephrology and clinical research. He has been site investigator for numerous pharmaceutical and CTG trials and has published over a wide range of topics including critical care nephrology, sedative practice, ventilation and futility of care. He is an examiner for the College of Intensive Care Medicine and has delivered numerous BASIC and beyond BASIC mechanical ventilation courses.

He is an active member of ANZICS having convened the 2010 ANZICS ASM in Melbourne and was the scientific convener for the CICM ASM in 2011. He has previously served on the Intensive Care Advisory Committee to DHS and as secretary for the College Victorian State Committee.

Dr Mark Nicholls is dual specialist in respiratory and intensive care medicine. His subspecialty interests include infection control within intensive care, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), intensive care heart and lung transplantation, and ventricular assist devices.

Dr Nicholls also has a special interest in resource-limited intensive care and is particularly interested in intensive care in low–middle income countries. To this end, Dr Nicholls is a volunteer for Open Heart International, an Australian humanitarian agency providing healthcare and specialised surgery to those living in developing countries. He has also worked and taught in Tanzania and Papua New Guinea.

Dr Nicholls is a Senior Conjoint Lecturer at the University of New South Wales and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Notre Dame.

Reena completed Anaesthesia and Intensive Care speciality training, in the UK, before emigrating to Australia in 2015. She currently works as a specialist in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia, at Fiona Stanley Hospital, in Western Australia. One of her key interests is education, and is actively involved in teaching, within her institution.

Having grown up in East Africa, she has a passion for global health equity and became a member of GICI in 2021. She has delivered in-person education to critical care clinicians and nurses in Tanzania and runs a monthly virtual education program on core ICU topics, to a wider cohort of clinicians, within East Africa.

Andy Macey is a critical care registered nurse and nursing academic with 23 years of experience in clinical practice, education, research, and capacity development. He has been a member of ANZICS GICI since 2021 and has held roles including clinical coordinator during the ANGAU Memorial Hospital Redevelopment project in Papua New Guinea and co-lead for PNG and the Pacific. Andy is passionate about advancing critical care in a global health context. He is the current chair of the ACCCN Global Health Advisory Panel and his research at Monash University explores the roles, training, and development needs of critical care nurses in LMICs.

Vanessa is an intensivist from Perth, Western Australia, currently working in Melbourne. She has special interests in global health, neurocritical care, and gender equity. 

Dr. Elizabeth Croston is a Paediatric Intensive Care physician at Perth Children’s Hospital, dedicated to providing critical care to young patients. With a wealth of experience, including roles at Princess Margaret Hospital and participation in humanitarian missions like Operation Open Heart in Rwanda, she brings exceptional expertise to her field. Dr. Croston serves as the Paediatric Lead for the ANZICS Global Intensive Care Initiative and has contributed to research on PICU follow-up care and centralisation. Her work reflects a strong commitment to advancing paediatric healthcare in Australia and internationally.