PACSA 2024

Invited International Speakers

Professor Per-Arne Lonnqvist

Professor Per-Arne Lonnqvist is a graduate of Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute. He is a professor in Paediatric Anesthesia and Intensive Care at Karolinska Institute and Karolinska University Hospital with more than 35 years’ experience in Paediatric Anesthesia, PICU and paediatric pain. Professor Lonnqvist has a long-standing interest in Regional Anaesthesia in both children and adults, especially para-vertebral and caudal blocks as well as adjunct use of alpha-2 agonists.

He boasts more than 200 items on PubMed and is an academic supervisor of 12 dissertation projects. He is the previous editorial board member of British Journal of Anaesthesia and a Section Editor of Paediatric Anesthesia. He is the previous board member of the Paediatric subcommittee of the European Society of Pediatric Anaesthesia (ESA), Association of Pediatric Anaesthesists of Great Britain and Ireland. Past-President of ESRA Nordic Zone. Founding father of Swedish Association of Regional Anesthesia (SFRA).

Professor Dr Clyde Matava

Professor Dr Clyde Matava is a Staff Anaesthesiologist at SickKids Hospital and is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. He is also the Associate Chief of Peri-operative Services for Bioinformatics and the Director of Anaesthesia Informatics, Innovation and Technology in the Department of Anaesthesia at SickKids. In addition, Professor Matava has designed and developed numerous apps, and has been recognised with several teaching and innovation awards.

His current research involves the use of cutting-edge technologies, such as 3D printing, Virtual Reality, and machine learning, to advance medical education and improve patient outcomes. Professor Matava is also the co-director of CHISIL, a VR lab at SickKids and the University of Toronto, where he is exploring the use of virtual, augmented, and mixed-reality in medicine.

His areas of clinical interest include airway management and regional aneasthesia, and has served as the President of the Canadian Paediatric Anaesthesia Society and currently serves as President-Elect on the Society for Technology in Anaesthesia Board, and as Chair of the Epic Speciality Steering Board.

Professor Matava is an Editor at the journals Paediatric Anaesthesia and the Journal of Medical Systems.

Professor Dr Steffen Rex

Professor Dr Steffen Rex is currently the Chairperson of the Department of Anaesthesiology at the University Hospital Leuven in Belgium. He his also the OR co-ordinator in the same department and an Associate Professsor of Anaesthesia in the Department of Cardio-vascular Sciences as KU Leuven.

Professor Rex’s main areas of research are in cardio-vascular anaesthesia; noble gases; peri-operative organ protection, post-operative delirium and anaesthetic neurotoxicity. He is also committed to research in haemodynamic monitoring, peri-operative echocardiography and multi-modal analgesia. He has more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and over 4000 citations accredited to his name, and has lectured at over 200 national and international conferences.

Professor Dr Ehrenfried Schindler

Professor Dr Ehrenfried Schindler was elected as the first Professor for Paediatric Anaesthesia in Germany in October 2019 at the University of Bonn. He also received the Venia Legendi from the Semmelweiss University in Budapest.

Prior to that, he was the Head of Department for Paediatric Anaesthesia and later Medical Director at the Children’s Hospital of Sankt Augustin in Germany which is home to the German Paediatric Heart Centre. The German Paediatric Heart Centre is the leading institution for children with Congenital Heart Defects in Germany. His main areas of interest is in the care of critically-ill children, with a focus on anaesthesia in children with congenital heart defects and the peri-operative setting.

Professor Schindler is also the Honorary Treasurer and later President of the European Society for Paediatric Anaesthesiology, and a pioneer in introducing enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) strategies, and ultra-fast trach anaesthesia after operations with cardio-pulmonary bypass.

Dr Vrushali Ponde

Dr Vrushali Ponde obtained her medical degree from the Mumbai University in 1998 and since then, has established herself as a recognised global authority in paediatric regional anaesthesia.

She is the president-elect of the Asian Society of Paediatric Anaesthesiologists (ASPA) and the Ex-secretary general of ASPA. She was also the ASPA Educational Lead between 2022 and 2023, as well as a paediatric peri-operative life support teacher.

Previous positions Dr Ponde has held include being the programme head: WFSA – Children Anaesthesia Services; ISA, Paediatric Regional Anaesthesia Fellowship (Mumbai) and the deputy chair of the World Federation of Paediatric Anaesthesiologists Committee.

In the India Academy of Regional Anaesthesia (AORA) she has held the position of ex-president of AORA (India); founder and secretary general; chairperson of the board of studies; AORA and CAS post-doctoral fellowship mentor in paediatric regional anaesthesia; and the director of childrens’ anaesthesia services in Mumbai.

Dr Ponde has also had vast international conference, workshop and teaching experience – including at the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard Medical School; Boston Childrens’ Hospital; and most recently in South Korea, becoming involved in a train-the-trainer programme in regional anaesthesia – all under the banner of AORA, India.

Dr Ponde is also a published author, notably of three editions of the Illustrated manual of USGRA anaesthesia in adults and children which has also been translated into Japanese. This is just one accomplishment in an illustrious line of international and national research publications. She has also presented the Indian perspective on regional anaesthesia in various countries at various international conferences.