Our amazing speakers 2023
Dr Dinis Dos Reis Miranda
Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Erasmus Medicaal Centre, Rotterdam. Dinis Reis Miranda is an anesthesiologist-intensivist and ECMO director of adult ECMO in the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam the Netherlands. In the ErasmusMC he has set up the ECPR program: ECPR team members are at the hospital 24/7 with a response time of 5 min being ready for ECPR at the trauma bay. Also, being a physician at the Dutch HEMS, he set up the On-Scene trial: a nationwide stepped-Wedged trial of prehospital ECPR by the Dutch HEMS.
Professor David Lockey
David is a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine, Pre-hospital Emergency Medicine and Anaesthesia. He works clinically in Bristol at Southmead Hospital and at the Air Ambulances in London and Wales. He has worked at London’s Air Ambulance for many years holding clinical, research and trustee roles in the organisation. Since 2018 he has also been National Director of the Emergency Medical and Retrieval Service in Wales. He is an Hon. Professor at Bristol University and Hon. Clinical Professor at Queen Mary University London. He currently holds the Gibson Professorship at The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and is the immediate past Chair of the Faculty of Pre-hospital Care also at The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
Designer/Project Manager Even Wøllo
Industrial designer, R&D department, Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation (NAAF), Oslo. Even Wøllo is product manager and developer in one of the main development projects in NAAF; "Medical Cockpit". In this project, NAAF is looking to improve the doctors' workspace, by reorganizing the medical equipment around the doctor according to the human factors’ guide. In addition to this, Wøllo participates in several development projects to improve the future of HEMS operation. One of these projects is to bring a CT scanner into the helicopter using new technology. Yet another worth mentioning, is the future of eVTOL and the environmental aspects of the service.
Dr Anne Weaver
Dr Anne Weaver - Consultant in Emergency Medicine & Prehospital Care, Clinical Director for Trauma, Royal London Hospital, UK. Anne began her Consultant career at the Royal London Hospital in 2004, taking on the role of Lead Clinician for Pre-Hospital Care at London’s Air Ambulance from 2007-14. She is now the Clinical Director for Trauma at the Royal London Major Trauma Centre. Anne led on the development and implementation of the Code Red pre-alert system in 2008, which was later adopted by all four London Major Trauma Centres. She led the introduction of "blood on board" in 2012, when London's Air Ambulance became the first UK service to routinely carry blood and more recently she led the innovation to carry a combined red cells and plasma product. She is a member of the Steering Group for the SWIFT trial, investigating the use of Whole Blood by UK Air Ambulances. She has an interest in governance, quality & performance improvement within Trauma Services and will speak about the Code Black response for neurotrauma patients at the Royal London MTC.
Dr Björn Hossfeld
LtCol Dr. Bjorn Hossfeld, MD, PhD was already active as a paramedic with the Bavarian Red Cross in the Würzburg EMS during his studies. After obtaining his license to practice medicine, he began his further training in anesthesiology at the Ulm Military Hospital in 1997. He worked as EMS-physician since 1999, ground based, and since 2006 as HEMS-physician at CHRISTOPH 22, which in a special civil-military cooperation is linked to the Ulm Military Hospital. Today he is the Vice Director of the Clinic for Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine and Pain Therapy at the Ulm Military Hospital. He has accomplished several military deployments on missions abroad in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Congo, Niger, Mali and Lebanon.
Dr Brage Håheim
Doctor Brage Håheim is a resident in cardiology at the University Hospital of Northern-Norway. His PhD from UiT, Arctic University of Norway focused on accidental hypothermia in an experimental model with emphasis on vasoactive treatment during rewarming from hypothermia.
Dr Fridtjof Heyerdahl
Fridtjof Heyerdahl is a consultant anaesthesiologist working at the Air Ambulance Department, Oslo University Hospital. He is a researcher at the University of Oslo and affiliated to the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation. His research interests are clinical toxicology, pharmacology in emergency settings, prehospital care and intensive care medicine. He is an on-call-clinician for the Norwegian Poisons Information Centre and is affiliated to the Norwegian CBRNE Centre. As an inventor of a patient transport isolation system, he founded the company EpiGuard, and is involved also in other medical device start-up companies ranging from enzymatic point-of-care diagnostics to ultrasound imaging.
Dr Hanne Rikstad Iversen
Hanne Rikstad Iversen is a consultant anesthetist at the emergency department of Hammerfest Hospital, one of the worlds northernmost hospitals, where she has been working since 1997. Hanne works as a flight physician at the 330 Squadron SAR helicopter base in Banak, where she started in 2006. Since 2008, she has been the Chief Medical Officer. In 2017, she started as a Medical Advisor for the department of prehospital services. Her main focus has been on raising competence in the ambulance services and increasing quality at the medical dispatch center. Throughout her career, Hanne has worked in teams and focused on improving teamwork at Hammerfest Hospital. She is a certified facilitator for the formalized trauma team training program and an accredited APLS instructor. She finds motivation in providing younger, and perhaps even older, colleagues with tools to handle acute situations, regardless of whether they are in a prehospital setting or at small or large hospitals. Hanne has extensive experience with extreme climatic and rural challenges. She lives in Hammerfest with her family and she loves Northern Norway and her life there with unpredictable weather, darkness and cold as well as limited resources. This creates an environment for touching interactions in the communities, where absolutely everyone comes together when someone is in need of help.
Dr Karianne Larsen
Neurologist and researcher, Oslo University Hospital, Dep. of Neurology and The Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation (Prehospital Acute Brain Program). Board member in the PRE-hospital Stroke Treatment Organization (PRESTO). Working to improve prehospital assessment of the acutely ill and injured brain with a special research interest in prehospital advanced diagnostics and treatment of acute stroke.
Dr Kristin Tønsager
Kristin Tønsager, MD, PhD is a Consultant Anaesthesiologist and a HEMS doctor at the Air Ambulance Department, Stavanger University Hospital, Norway. She is the Leader of Research at the Prehospital Clinic, Stavanger University Hospital and Associate Professor at University of Stavanger. Broad HEMS experience as a HEMS doctor at the Norwegian Air Ambulance base in Stavanger since 2008. Since 2012 also as a HEMS doctor at the Search and Rescue services, 330 sq RoNAF Sola, Norway.
Dr Lars Falk
Lars Falk MD, PhD, ECMO Specialist, Consultant Intensivist and Anesthetist, ECMO Centre Karolinska, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. Medical Director at Karolinska University’s paediatric specialized intensive care units as well as the intensive care transport teams. Dr Falk holds a PhD in Medical Science, Intensive Care at Karolinska Institutet. He had his clinical training and specialization in Anesthesia and Intensive Care at Karolinska University Hospital. Furthermore, he has been involved in several inquiries concerning acquisition of rotary aircraft for Karolinska University Hospital. In 2021 Dr Falk was given the task of setting up a sustainable aerial transportation fleet for Karolinska. Dr Falk pioneered and evolved Karolinska’s approach of organizing their medical crews not from a transportation aspect but rather from the team’s inherent specialization in neonatal, paediatric, ECMO and intensive care. The principal idea is to bring the same care that the patients receive at Karolinska out to other hospitals.
Dr Malcolm Russell MBE
Malcolm is Emeritus Medical Director of Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS) and HEMS doctor with Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, having been a helicopter physician for over 25 years. Malcolm has won awards for equipment design and development, and he built the successful business brand, ‘Prometheus Medical’ (now part of the Safeguard Medical group). Being an ex-military doctor with experience in expeditionary medicine, Malcolm became the Medical Director of the UK Fire & Rescue Services’ International Search and Rescue (UK ISAR) team and has deployed to disasters in New Zealand, Japan, Nepal, Turkey and Malawi.
Dr Marit Bekkevold
Marit Bekkevold is a consultant anaesthesiologist and HEMS doctor at Rikshospitalet and the Air Ambulance Department at Oslo University Hospital. She is a PhD student at the Medical Faculty of Oslo University and the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation. The PhD project is about neonatal intensive care transports; current practice for these transports and future improvements.
Dr Med. Matthias Ruppert
Management Board Member of ADAC HEMS Academy since 2020; 2007-2020 Medical Director of ADAC air rescue; clinical education at University of Munich Medical Center (departments of anesthesiology, surgery, internal medicine) and Institute for Emergency Medicine and Management in Medicine (INM). Consultant in anesthesiology, specialized in emergency medicine; HEMS physician since more than 20 years in different systems with hoist and long line operations in alpine and maritime settings; academic focus and special interests: safety culture in high reliability organizations, human factors, patient and mission simulation, emergency medicine in hostile environment.
Priv.-Doz. Dr Stephan Prückner
Stephan Prückner specializes in Anaesthesiology and Emergency Medicine, and is the head of disaster control and civil protection as well as the head of pandemic management at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University hospital in Munich (LMU Klinikum). As managing director of the Institut für Notfallmedizin und Medizinmanagement at LMU Klinikum, he leads an interdisciplinary team of scientists and researchers with focus on research, teaching and consulting in the field of emergency medicine. From 1998-1999 he was a Research Fellow/Research Associate at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center on a US-Navy Research Grant. From 2007-2009 he was a research associate for EU/BMBF-Projects EMERGE, OASIS, ROSETTA, and ProAssist4Life at the Institute of Anaethesiology and Emergency Medicine, Westpfalz-Klinikum and the Fraunhofer Institute of Experimental Software engineering in Kaiserslautern. 2021 marked his 20th anniversary as an emergency physician with the well-known rescue service of Air Zermatt (Switzerland). From 2009 – 2013 he was medical head of the DRF Luftrettung rescue helicopter base at Klinikum Großhadern where he serves as an emergency physician since 1999. As chair of several medical associations, his scientific focus is on EMS, pre-hospital care, human factors, social aspects and the epidemiology of emergency medicine.
Dr Mikael Gellerfors
Mikael Gellerfors is Research Director with the Swedish Air Ambulance and Rapid Response Cars in Stockholm. Mikael works as Senior Consultant with Dalarna Ambulance Helicopter, Critical Care Physician with the Rapid Response Car in Stockholm and anaesthesiologist at Karolinska University Hospital trauma unit. Mikaels research centers on prehospital advanced airway management and he has been in several prehospital expert groups.
Dr Per Bredmose
Dr. Per P. Bredmose, MD, PhD, is a senior consultant in pre-hospital care and retrieval medicine at Oslo University Hospital and holds a PhD in medical simulation for HEMS crews on call. He has a background as a specialist anesthesiologist and intensivist, trained in Denmark, UK, Australia and Norway. He works at the University Hospital in Oslo when not working on RW (HEMS), FW, and ICU ambulances. Over the last two decades, he has extensive experience as a HEMS physician from SAR in Denmark, via London HEMS, CareFlight and LifeFLight Australia, ending up in Norway. He is interested in transporting the sickest of the sickest, i.e., premature and neonates in incubators, patients on ECMO, and patients in need of iNO. He has lectured and taught worldwide on these topics.
Dr Tine Almenning Flaa
Tine Almenning Flaa holds a MSc in psychology from the University of Bergen (UiB) and completed her Ph.D. at the same institution, with funding and collaboration from the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation (NAAF). Her research focused on sleep, sleepiness, and shift work within the air ambulance sector. She currently serves as a researcher at NAAF, where she continues her investigations into sleep, sleepiness, fatigue, and safety, actively contributing to the implementation of Fatigue Risk Management strategies at the Norwegian Air Ambulance.
Dr William Ottestad
William Ottestad MD, PhD is a consultant anaesthesiologist and HEMS doctor working at Oslo University Hospital. He received his PhD from the Institute of Clinical Medicine at the University of Oslo. His PhD research explored the immune response in humans after severe trauma and haemorrhagic shock, and spanned diverse fields in medicine ranging from molecular biology to immunology, traumatology and critical care. He is pursuing findings from this project in a large-animal model as a postdoctoral fellow in The Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation. Additionally, he is leading a research project evaluating Human External Cargo operations in the Norwegian HEMS. He has worked as a flight surgeon for the Norwegian Special Forces for almost two decades, and has a special interest in aviation, space and environmental medicine.
Dr Zane Perkins
Zane Perkins is a consultant Trauma & General (Upper Gastrointestinal) surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, one of the busiest trauma centres in Europe. He is also a consultant in prehospital care with London’s Air Ambulance. He studied medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa and has trained in Johannesburg, Durban, and London. He completed UK higher surgical training in the Kent, Surrey, and Sussex Deanery and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He has a Fellowship in Immediate Medical Care from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and a Diploma in Anaesthetics from the College of Anaesthetists of South Africa. In April 2016 he was awarded a Ph.D. by the University of London for his work on Artificial Intelligence powered predictive analytics to support clinical decision-making in trauma care. His research is principally concerned with clinical decision-support in early trauma care and prehospital trauma resuscitation. He holds an honorary senior lectureship at the Centre for Trauma Sciences, Queen Mary University of London.
Jaap Hatenboer MSc
Innovation Advisor, Ambulance Service, University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG), the Netherlands. Before joining the ambulance service Jaap served for 15 years as technical officer in the Royal Netherlands Air Force supporting fixed wing and helicopter operations. At UMCG Ambulance Service he was involved in transitioning the (military) SAR patient transport for the Frisian islands to the first civilian HEMS ambulance helicopter unit in the Netherlands. Other areas of interest are sustainability, the introduction of electric vehicles and innovations in mobile communication. At present Jaap is supporting the national zero emission ambulance roadmap and he is involved in the introduction of (piloted) ambulance eVTOLs and (uncrewed) medical cargo drones. Jaap has always been very interested in Human Factors and likes to read Hindsight magazine “from a to z”. He will also often use quotes in his presentations, like “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail” (Benjamin Franklin) or “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards” (Søren Kierkegaard).
Dr Jostein Brede
Medical Doctor at St. Olavs hospital. PhD. Senior researcher at Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation, Norway Dr Jostein Rødseth Brede, MD PhD. Consultant anaesthesiologist at St. Olavs University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway. HEMS doctor at 330 sqv, RoNAF. Senior researcher at the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation. Research field: REBOA in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
Dr Jostein Hagemo
Medical Doctor at Oslo University Hospital, Senior Researcher at Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation, Norway MD, PhD. Consultant anaesthesiologist and senior researcher working at Oslo University Hospital and the Norwegian Air Ambulance base in Oslo. Research fields are prehospital medicine with special interest in massive transfusions and coagulopathy in trauma, neonatal transports and cardiac arrest. He also has experience from fixed wing air ambulance and SAR helicopter services, as well as field work in developing countries. In the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation he also holds the position as advisor in department of research and development.
Dr Leif Rognås
Leif is an anaesthesiologist with more than 15 years of experience from several different pre-hospital critical care services in both Denmark and the UK. He is currently working in a split role as Base Lead Clinician and Head of Development for The Danish Air Ambulance and as a Consultant Anaesthesiologist at Aarhus University Hospital. Leif holds a PhD in pre-hospital advanced airway management and is the Danish National Coordinator for The REBOARREST Trial as well as an associate editor for The Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine.
MAG (FH) Bernd Lang
Bernd Lang has a degree in Health Management and Health Science. During these studies, he specialized in human factors and learning processes as well as on organizational behavior and management systems. Bernd joined ÖAMTC Air Rescue in 2005 and currently acts there as Training Director and Compliance Manager, focusing on the areas “Training & Learning”, “Research & Development” and “Quality & Compliance”. He is an Aeromedical Crew Resource Management (ACRM) trainer and chairman of the EHAC ACRM working group. Human factors science and the human beings as well as the systems in which they work, are his real passion.
MD Torvind Næsheim
Born 1972. Consultant in cardithoracic anesthesiology. Helidoc since 2003. ECMO-coordinator, UNN. Medically responible for CPR-program, UNN. Specialist interests in hemodynamics and ultrasound
Mr Erik Normann
Erik Normann is an active HEMS Commander and Flight Instructor with more than 30 years’ experience as a helicopter pilot. He has held positions as Chief Pilot and Manager Flight Operations at Norwegian Air Ambulance Ltd, and now holds the position Head of Flight Ops Development in the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation. Erik has a strong commitment to improving Pre-hospital medicine through safer and more reliable flight operations. He has run projects such as the implementation of new aircraft fleets and Night Vision Goggle Operations. In 2004 Erik was the initiator of Europe’s first GPS-based Point in Space IFR network at Norwegian Air Ambulance. He is an active participant in several EASA rulemaking processes and works as an advisor on helicopter flight operational topics.
Mr Gerold Biner
For more than 40 years now, Gerold Biner has been part of Air Zermatt. Following his apprenticeship as a mechanic at Sion Airport, he started his career with the helicopter company in Upper Valais as a “window cleaner”, as he likes to say. Gerold Biner has been a pilot for 33 years. Over the last 12 years he has played a major role in shaping Air Zermatt as the company’s CEO. With 16,000 flight hours and more than 5,000 rescue operations under his belt, he is one of the world’s most experienced and successful helicopter pilots. He shares his knowledge and wealth of expe- rience in the cockpit around the globe – on the five-thousand-meter peaks of the Himalayas, in the alpine regions of Turkey and of course in his native Valais mountains. As a husband and father of two daughters, flying in his home territory around the Matterhorn is still what he most likes to do, even after all these years. Gerold Biner celebrates his 60th birthday this year, and has decided this is the time to embark on new adventures after handing over the reins as pilot and CEO. Air Zermatt will hopefully continue to benefit from his vast expertise in everything to do with helicopter flying in the future. After all, anyone who has ever had the opportunity to fly with Gerold Biner has experienced his true passion for his work firsthand.
Professor Wolfgang Voelckel
Prof. Wolfgang. G. Voelckel, M.D., M.Sc., D.E.A.A. Medical Director AUVA Trauma Centre Salzburg and Head Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine; Medical Director ÖAMTC Air Rescue Austria; Accountable manager, Trauma Network Salzburg. Associate Professor University of Stavanger, Norway: Course Coordinator Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Care, International Master Study. Affiliations: Paracelsus Private Medical University, Salzburg and Medical University Vienna. Research interests: emergency medicine, trauma, coagulation management. Personal interests: Body and soul (sports and good dining)
Professor Roland Albrecht
Roland Albrecht is the Medical Director of Swiss Air Rescue and Air Ambulance Ldt. (Rega) since 2008. He is a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine, Pre-hospital Emergency Medicine and Anaesthesia. He works clinically in St.Gallen/Switzerland at the Cantonal Hospital. Roland is a Associate Professor University of Berne, Switzerland. The main research areas are acute Trauma care, pre-hospital advanced airway management, prehospital care under extreme conditions and special transports with cardiac assist devices and those for highly infectious patients.
Professor Andreas Krüger
Dr Andreas Krüger is an anaesthesist, pre-hospital physician at Trondheim air ambulance service and professor in pre-hospital critical care at St. Olavs University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway. He has a background as a winch man of the Norwegian Air Force Rescue Helicopter Services, and holds a PhD on the topic of documentation in physician-staffed pre-hospital services. He is involved in quality improvement research, with specific focus on pre-hospital medicine. Krüger is also innovation director at the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation and the chief investigator of the ongoing REBOArrest Trial.
Associate Professor Erik Sveberg Dietrichs
Sveberg is Dietrichs is a consultant physician at Diakonhjemmet Hospital and specialist in clinical pharmacology. He holds associate professor positions at the University of Oslo and UiT The Arctic University of Norway. His research interests include pharmacological support to accidental hypothermia patients with focus on inotropic support and avoidance of ventricular arrhythmias. Dietrichs is a member of the Young Academy of Norway and produces the podcast Gal Medisin. He has published several books, including "På livets grense" (Life on the Edge. How The Body Copes With Extreme Conditions).
Professor Giacomo Strapazzon
Prof. Giacomo Strapazzon, MD, PhD, DiMM is Head of the Institute of Mountain Emergency Medicine of Eurac Research in UNESCO World Heritage Dolomites, Italy. He is a consultant in emergency medicine, delegate for the Italian Mountain Rescue (CNSAS) within the International Commission for Alpine Rescue (ICAR) and lectures at the University of Padova, Italy. He has been principal and co-investigator in over 30 in-field, clinical and lab studies, mainly focusing on cold injuries, thus expanding the current knowledge on avalanche-accident care and injury prevention using a notably innovative approach. His research interests encompass mountain emergency medicine (MEM) including helicopter and special-scenario rescue, point-of-care ultrasonography and UAV use. He has published over 160 research manuscripts and 12 book chapters, and is editor of the first MEM book. He also lectures in several Universities and DiMM courses on topics related to mountain emergency medicine.
Professor Hans Morten Lossius
Professor Hans Morten Lossius MD PhD, is a specialist in anaesthesiology and intensive care and has extensive clinical practice within prehospital critical care and air ambulance medicine. He is the Secretary General of the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation, professor of prehospital critical care at the University of Stavanger, Norway, and adjunct professor of prehospital critical care at the University of Aalborg, Denmark. From 2015 to 2018 he was a visiting professor of emergency medicine at Karolinska Institute, Sweden. In 2020 he received an Honorary Fellowship in Immediate Care at The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Prof Lossius main research areas are acute trauma care, pre-hospital advanced airway management, pre-hospital stroke treatment, pre-hospital ultrasound diagnostics, and research method development in pre-hospital critical care. He has been and is involved in several international projects and conferences within this field.
Professor Marius Rehn
Marius Rehn is a consultant anaesthesiologist and HEMS doctor working at the air ambulance department and Rikshospitalet, Oslo University Hospital. He is a senior researcher in the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation and a clinical professor at the Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo. He holds an adjunct professorship at the University of Southern Denmark and is Editor-in-chief of the Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine.
Professor Stephen Sollid
Stephen is a trained anaesthesiologist with many years’ experience from Norwegian HEMS, SAR and EMS as a prehospital critical care doctor. He is currently the head of the prehospital services of Oslo University Hospital, covering the greater capital region of Norway and 1/3 of the Norwegian population. He has a long academic track record with research on prehospital airway management, risk management and critical care competence, and is currently a professor at the University of Oslo, faculty of medicine. He is passionately engaged in patient safety, risk management and competence development – both in his research and his job.
Dr Urs Pietsch
Urs is a trained anesthesiologist and intensivist with many years of experience in Swiss air rescue as a prehospital physician and intensive care physician. He is currently Deputy Head of Intensive Care Medicine at the Cantonal Hospital St Gallen/Switzerland. He has an academic career in which he has conducted research on prehospital airway management, alpine air rescue, simulation in EMS and critical care. He is passionate about patient safety, prehospital care under extreme conditions - both in his research and in his profession.