Dr Alex Psirides

Alex is co-director of the tertiary ICU in Wellington and medical director of the regional aeromedical retrieval service. He trained in London, Australia and New Zealand. He has been involved in the design and implementation of rapid response systems to detect and respond to in-patient deterioration in several countries. His work and research in this area led to an appointment as the national clinical lead for the New Zealand Health Quality & Safety Commission’s 5-year ‘Deteriorating Patient’ programme. Through this work, New Zealand has implemented a national evidence-based Early Warning Score, a standardised vital signs chart, a patient & family escalation system and a national shared goals of care approach to ensuring all treatment provided to in-patients is both wanted and warranted. He is interested in how hospitals (often fail to) recognise dying patients and thinks we could & should do better. He would much rather meet international colleagues in person than through Zoom, but accepts the inevitability of this continuing for some time. When not walking his dog or children, he builds websites & designs logos for Wellington ICU’s prodigious research department. He has nearly written a lot more papers and should definitely spend less time on Twitter.