Her initial research activities addressed cerebral haemodynamics in acute bacterial meningitis, altitude physiology, and mechanisms of systemic inflammation. She acquired the PhD degree in 2001 and the doctoral degree as well as specialist authorization in anaesthesiology in 2007; she then subspecialized in intensive care medicine in 2011 and was appointed Professor of Neuroanaesthesiology at the University of Copenhagen and Rigshospitalet in 2014.

Current research interests include the pathophysiology of acute brain and spinal cord injury, in particular multimodal neuromonitoring, cortical spreading depolarization and other mechanisms involved in secondary brain injury. She has co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and supervised 20 PhD students to completion of their studies.

Experience

2021.12.01 – now

Administrator • Department of Intensive Care • The Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kaunas Clinics

2022.09.01 – now

Lector • Department of Intensive Care • The Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences

2014.09.01 – now

Anesthesiologist-reanimatologist • Department of Intensive Care • The Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kaunas Clinics 2015.09.15 – 2022.06.31

Assistant • Department of Intensive Care • Lithuanian University of Health Sciences

2014.09.14–2018.03.01

Anesthesiologist-reanimatologist • Department of Emergency Medicine

• The Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kaunas Clinics

2014.10.01–2015.12.10

Anesthesiologist-reanimatologist • Department of Anesthesiology • The Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kaunas Clinics

Education

2014.09.01 – 2022.06.29

PhD • Department of Intensive care • Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas

2010. 08. 01 -2014. 07. 31

Anesthesia and intensive care residency • Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas

2009-2010

Internship • Kaunas Clinical Hospital, Kaunas

2003-2009

Master degree • Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Academy of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kaunas

1991-2003

Kaunas V. Kudirka Secondary school

Peter Paal MD PD MBA PM.ME EDAIC EDIC FERC, consultant and clinical director, department of anaesthesiology and intensive care medicine, St. John of God Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria

Research lead, International Commission for Mountain Emergency Medicine; European Resuscitation Council (ERC) Advanced Life Support (ALS ) – Education and Science Committee, President of the Austrian Board for Mountain Safety, Vice President Austrian Society of Mountain and High Altitude Medicine (ÖGAHM) and International Society for Mountain Medicine (ISMM). Board of the Austrian Society of Anaesthesiology, Resuscitation and Intensive Care Medicine (ÖGARI). Medical Director of the courses for the Diploma in Mountain Medicine (DiMM) of the Austrian Society of Mountain and High Altitude Medicine (https://www.alpinaerzteschmiede.com/at/themen/lehrgaenge/).

Research interests include emergency medicine, extreme environments, medical ethics, perioperative outcome and resuscitation. 190+ PubMed indexed publications, Co-editor of the books Mountain Emergency Medicine – Elsevier (https://www.edrapublishing.com/home/520/mountain-emergency-medicine.html) and Alpin- und Höhenmedizin (Alpine and High Altitude Medicine, 3^rd edition to be published in 2025, scheduled to be published also in English by Springer publishers) (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-662-56396-0).

Kaste Mateikaite-Pipiriene is a specialist in nephrology, internal medicine, and mountain medicine. She works as a nephrologist at Diaverum Dialysis Clinic, Lithuania. She previously worked as a hyperbaric oxygenotherapy doctor and emergency doctor at the Republic Vilnius University hospital in Vilnius, Lithuania. She is a graduate of Vilnius University, had practice at Kuopion University hospital, Peking University, John Radcliffe Hospital.

Dr. Mateikaite-Pipiriene holds a Diploma in Mountain Medicine from Nepal and has worked as a doctor for the Lenin Peak Camp in Kyrgyzstan, as well as at several mountaineering expeditions. There she gained extensive experience in treating climbers and mountaineers who have experienced altitude sickness, frostbite, and other altitude-related illnesses. She is also a member of the Medical Commission of the UIAA (International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation) and has been involved in writing recommendations for climbers and mountaineers. She is passionate about sharing her knowledge and experience with others and is a regular speaker at climbing and mountaineering events in Lithuania.

Peter Paal MD PD MBA PM.ME EDAIC EDIC FERC, consultant and clinical director, department of anaesthesiology and intensive care medicine, St. John of God Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria

Research lead, International Commission for Mountain Emergency Medicine; European Resuscitation Council (ERC) Advanced Life Support (ALS ) – Education and Science Committee, President of the Austrian Board for Mountain Safety, Vice President Austrian Society of Mountain and High Altitude Medicine (ÖGAHM) and International Society for Mountain Medicine (ISMM). Board of the Austrian Society of Anaesthesiology, Resuscitation and Intensive Care Medicine (ÖGARI). Medical Director of the courses for the Diploma in Mountain Medicine (DiMM) of the Austrian Society of Mountain and High Altitude Medicine (https://www.alpinaerzteschmiede.com/at/themen/lehrgaenge/).

Research interests include emergency medicine, extreme environments, medical ethics, perioperative outcome and resuscitation. 190+ PubMed indexed publications, Co-editor of the books Mountain Emergency Medicine – Elsevier (https://www.edrapublishing.com/home/520/mountain-emergency-medicine.html) and Alpin- und Höhenmedizin (Alpine and High Altitude Medicine, 3^rd edition to be published in 2025, scheduled to be published also in English by Springer publishers) (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-662-56396-0).

Anders Perner is a senior staff specialist in intensive care and a professor in anaesthesia and intensive care at Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen and honorary professor at the George Institute in Sydney.

His focus is on clinical trial programs in critically ill patients, and he is a key member of the Collaboration for Research in Intensive Care. He led the land-mark trials – 6S, TRISS, CLASSIC and COVID STEROID trials – the results of which has improved fluid, transfusion, and steroid therapy for critically ill patients. His ongoing research continues along this track testing frequent interventions for which there are doubts about the balance between benefit and harm, including IV fluids, antiarrhythmics, antibiotics, blood products and glucose control in ICU patients. An increasing focus is on improved trial infrastructure to facilitate many more trials and improvements in health care. Hence, he leads the Intensive Care Platform Trial – INCEPT, which is a platform trial for acutely-admitted, adult ICU patients.

M.D., Ph.D., Surgeon and university lecturer in surgery and disaster medicine at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He has been a visiting professor to several universities and course director for validated training and simulation exercises. His research focuses on trauma. mass casualty management, multiagency collaboration and exercises, disasters, public health emergencies, and emergency medicine.

Michael Hiesmayr, MD, MSc
Professor Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine
Senior researcher
Division of Cardiac- Thoracic- Vascular Anaesthesia and Intensive Care
& Center for Medical Data Science, Medical University Vienna

Austria

Education and training
1973-79 Medical University School Innsbruck & Vienna. 1979-80 Post-Doc Fellow University Zürich. 1983 Board certification for General Medicine. 1984-87 Residency Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Vienna, 1987 Board certification for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care. 1987-88 Research fellow: Pathophysiological Laboratory, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands.1998 Training University College London: How to teach and practice evidence based medicine. 1999Associate Professor for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care. 2000 Visiting Professor: Université Jean Fourier, Grenoble, France. 2001 Board Certification in Perioperative Echocardiography, USA. 2002 Member of the Ethical Committee, Medical University Vienna. 2002 Head Division of Cardiac, Thoracic, Vascular Anesthesia and Intensive Care. 2008 Full Professor. 2014 Director Postgraduate Program. Medical University Vienna. 2015 MSc Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Research
– Publication of 200 + articles in international, peer reviewed journals
– Cumulative citation index of 4000+, H-index 32
– Epidemiology of perioperative & nutritional risk factors
– Body composition and muscle function
– Perioperative ventilation (ProVent international research group)
– Development and management of the nutritionDay research and auditing tool www.nutritionday.org. >60 cooperating countries.
– Risk assessment of intensive care infections
– Nutrition & metabolism in acute care

Clinical work
Head of the Division of Cardiac, Thoracic, Vascular Anaesthesia and Intensive
Care (2002-2019) at AKH-University Clinics, the largest academic medical
center in Austria, 1850 beds. Director Clinic for Anesthesia, General Intensive
Care and Pain Therapy (2007-2014). The division has 52 medical academics,
12 operating & interventional rooms, a PACU 8 beds and an ICU with 16 beds.
The ICU handles 750-850 admissions per year. The research unit has a staff of
3.5 full-time equivalents to support 3 research groups. Retired 2019. Senior
researcher at Center for Medical Data Science, Medical University Vienna.

Linas Zdanavičius graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Vilnius University in 2010. He obtained a professional qualification as a clinical toxicologist in 2013 and completed a residency in intensive care medicine in 2015. Since 2023, he has been pursuing a doctorate in medical sciences, with his thesis titled “Diagnostic and Prognostic Values of Phosphatidylethanol in Patients with Non-Traumatic Compartment Syndrome.”

Areas of Interest
Poisonings and substance use disorders related to psychoactive substances.

Membership in Professional Organizations
Member of the Lithuanian Clinical Toxicology Society.

Dr. Laura Bojarskaitė is a neuroscientist and sleep researcher, currently working at Oslo University in the GliaLab, a brain glial cell laboratory. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from University of Oslo, a Master’s degree in Pharmacy from University of Copenhagen and a PhD in Neuroscience from University in Oslo. She is researching the glymphatic system – removal of toxic proteins from the brain – and particularly why this process happens almost exclusively when we sleep. During her PhD, she developed a powerful and unique method that allows us to study what happens in brain cells in a naturally sleeping, live animal. Using this method, her colleagues and Laura made two significant discoveries. First, they demonstrated that specialized brain cells called astrocytes help maintain the quality of deep sleep (Bojarskaite et al., Nat Commun 11, 3240 (2020)). Second, they showed that only during sleep do brain arteries expand and contract in specific rhythms, which enhance the flow of cerebrospinal fluid and help remove harmful substances that contribute to neurodegenerative diseases (Bojarskaite et al., Nat Commun 14, 953 (2023)). She continues to research these processes in pathology animal models, such as hypertension and Alzheimer’s Disease. Laura is a passionate science communicator and the creator of science communication platform Laura Brain Talks (www.laurabraintalks.com) and a creator and host of radio show “Sleep DNA” on lithuanian national radio.

Dr. Odeta Gelezelyte is a clinical psychologist, and an associate professor and senior researcher at the Centre for Psychotraumatology, Vilnius University, Lithuania.  She is also the president of the Lithuanian Society for Traumatic Stress (LTPA), and the Secretary of the Board at the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS). Her main research and clinical interests are in the field of posttraumatic stress and complex trauma. 

Dalia Smagurauskaitė is a media relations officer and communications specialist at Republican Vilnius University Hospital (RVUH). She began her career coordinating social projects, then worked as a journalist at a national broadcaster. Over the years, she has collaborated with major Lithuanian news portals and magazines, served as editor-in-chief for two magazines, and contributed to the creation of a TV show. Additionally, she is the author of four books. At RVUH, D. Smagurauskaitė manages communication with journalists, writes press releases, develops social media strategies, and oversees the creation of the hospital magazine, among other responsibilities.