About Us

John is a senior Staff Specialist working in the RNSH Emergency Department. He is also the Director of the Hospital Skills Program and Deputy Director of the Sydney Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre. He is a Clinical Associate Professor in the discipline of emergency medicine at Sydney Medical School. John has a strong interest in education, patient safety and airway management. He runs a cadaveric airway course yearly with Prof. Richard Levitan and is co-lead of the NSW airway registry project in collaboration with the Emergency Care Institute.

Dr Adam Rehak is a senior consultant anaesthetist at Royal North Shore Hospital. He is also the director of anaesthesia courses at the Sydney Clinical Skills & Simulation Centre, also at Royal North Shore Hospital. He has an appointment at Sydney University as a Senior Clinical Lecturer, where he is currently co-coordinating a post-graduate degree in clinical neurophysiology.

He underwent his undergraduate training at Melbourne University and the Austin Hospital in Melbourne. He was an anaesthetic registrar at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne and at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital Trust in London, before undergoing a provisional fellowship at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney.

He has particular clinical interests in neuroanaesthesia, intra-operative neuro and spinal cord monitoring, airway management and human factors in health care. He is a member of the executive of the Airway Management Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists. His other interests include wilderness and expedition medicine, ski touring, camping and surfing.

Andrea dual trained in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care medicine in Bristol in the UK. She came to Australia in 2012 and is now a Staff Specialist in Anaesthesia at Wollongong hospital.

Andrea has experience in airway management training having been regularly involved in teaching the Difficult Airway Rescue Techniques (DART) and DART-SIM courses in the UK from 2007 to 2012. She is now part of a team providing ANZCA approved CICO training in Wollongong, and runs regular simulation sessions for anaesthetic  trainees.

She is also very involved in teaching and training as a supervisor of training at Wollongong hospital, and lecturer at the Graduate School of Medicine.

Caroline is an Anaesthetist at Hornsby Ku-ring-gai, Manly and Mona Vale Hospitals. She completed her Fellowship at Royal North Shore Hospital, gaining extensive experience with fibre optic techniques. She also has Pre-Hospital experience and has managed airways in challenging circumstances. She has qualifications in education and simulation, and runs regular simulation sessions for anaesthetic trainees and nurses. She is lead investigator of a randomised controlled trial comparing sugammadex and neostigmine.

Wade got his MBBS at the University of Queensland. He has special interests in trauma and neurocritical care, having completed a trauma critical care fellowship at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto (the busiest trauma centre in Canada).

He loves teaching, has completed the NHET-Sim Instructor programand teaches on simulation based airway workshops (at Sunnybrook Hospital and now at RNSH). He is heavily involved in ALS training through the ARC (Australian Resuscitation Council) – he is a current course director and has taught on many provider and instructor courses. He also instructs on BASIC and Beyond BASIC courses.

Wade completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Echocardiography from the University of Melbourne during his CICM fellowship.

His other interests include travel, eating out and Australian Rules Football.

Lewis has extensive experience as an Emergency physician, when he rose through the ranks to become the Director of Royal North Shore Hospital Emergency Department, Director of Emergency Medicine Training, and Director of Trauma at St George Hospital. He then re-trained in Intensive Care Medicine.
Lewis worked in retrieval medicine for many years, managing challenging airways, and teaches at cadaver airway workshops.

Oli is an Intensivist at Royal North Shore Hospital, runs the popular Intensive Care Networkwebsite and ICU Podcasts, and co-convenes the SMACC conference.

He has an interest in innovative teaching and education and has taught on airway courses at the Bedside Critical Care conferenceand is faculty on Richard Levitan’s Yellowstone Airway course.

Oli is developing a research and publication portfolio and has significant involvement with the CICM Fellowship teaching program at RNSH and in Sydney.

He loves being a Dad, doing martial arts, painting and traveling (not all at once).

Dr Rachel Vassiliadis is a Specialist Anaesthetist with 18 years experience in general anaesthesia and sedation working on the Central Coast and around Sydney. Her anaesthetic areas of interest include head and neck, ear, nose and throat, dental surgery, paediatrics and obstetrics. She is involved in teaching doctors and nurses about patient safety, anaesthesia and airway management. Rachel is faculty on the Levitan Cadaveric airway course and on the BCC conferences.

Richard is an Anaesthetist at Manly and Mona Vale Hospitals on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. He has significant experience in difficult airway management. This is due to his work as a Staff Anaesthetist at the Royal Darwin Hospital, which sees a very high volume of facial trauma, and on medical aid trips to West Africa specialising in complicated maxillo-facial surgery on patients with advanced facial tumours. He has an interest in anaesthesia in remote areas and developing countries and has worked extensively overseas.

Chris Sparks is an Senior Anaesthetist at Royal North Shore Hospital with an interest in fibre optic intubation for rheumatoid arthritis and also use of the Laryngeal Mask as an airway rescue device.

Chris Sparks is an Senior Anaesthetist at Royal North Shore Hospital with an interest in fibre optic intubation for rheumatoid arthritis and also use of the Laryngeal Mask as an airway rescue device.