Program

Date: Thursday, 11th September 2025

Time: 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM AEST

INTRODUCTION

1830–1835 Welcome and Opening

SEPSIS UPDATES

1835–1845 Global and National Sepsis Updates - Dr Brett Abbenbroek

1845–1850 State Program Update- Louise McKinlay

1850–1900 Pre Hospital Sepsis Update- A/Prof David Anderson ASM

1900 - 1910 - Q&A- All presenters, chaired by Prof Steve McGloughlin

FUTURE OF SEPSIS

1910–1915 Introduction to Topic: Future of Sepsis

1915–1925 Safe and responsible use of AI in health care- Toby Mathieson

1925–1935 Sepsis Detection Algorithms in ED- A/Prof Amith Shetty

1935–1955 Panel Discussion - All presenters, chaired by Dr Steve McGloughlin

1955–2000 Close

Judit Orosz

Intensive Care Specialist and Deputy Director (Operations) Intensive Care, The Alfred

Dr Judit Orosz is an Intensive Care Specialist and the Deputy Director (Operations) at The Alfred ICU. She originally trained in Hungary and Ireland in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine before completing Intensive Care training, ultrasound and echocardiography training in Australia.

She has completed the Safety, Quality, Informatics and Leadership training program at Harvard University. Her other interests and responsibilities include care of deteriorating patients and supervision of the Medical Emergency Team.

Brett Abbenbroek

Program Manager, Sepsis Australia and Asia Pacific Sepsis Alliance, Global Sepsis Alliance Board Member

Dr Brett Abbenbroek is the Program Manager of Sepsis Australia and the Asia Pacific Sepsis Alliance (APSA) in the Critical Care Division at The George Institute. Stopping Sepsis - National Sepsis Action Plan. These responsibilities also extend to APSA which is a coalition of 23 countries across the Asia Pacific to manage regionwide initiatives in education, research and quality improvement for better outcomes in sepsis survivors.

Brett is a registered nurse with extensive clinical, education, and management experience in critical care. His qualifications include intensive care, health management, a Bachelor of Science, and a Masters in Public Health. In May 2018, he completed his doctoral studies into the efficiency and effectiveness of organisational models in critical care and their impact on patient and nurse outcomes. Study findings inform the Australasian Health Facility Guidelines for new and redeveloped ICUs.

Early in his career, Brett worked on several projects within developing nations, including Nepal, Vanuatu and China, to establish cardiac surgical and critical care programs. Concurrently, Brett gained experience in a range of health policy, planning, project management, digital health and clinical safety advisory roles. As the State-wide Coordinator for Critical Care Service Planning (NSW) across ICU, ED and medical retrieval services, he worked closely with clinicians to enhance the development, integration and delivery of critical care services. This led to a successful Treasury bid for funding to build and implement the electronic Record for Intensive Care (NSW) for which Brett was the Program Manager for Change and Adoption. A health service planning and management consultancy business followed, leading to project management roles within the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care on a series of national eHealth clinical safety programs, electronic medication safety and the development of evidence-based national clinical care standards. This experience was integral to the development and launch of the national Sepsis Clinical Care Standard in June 2022, which places Australia at the forefront globally towards achieving a systems-based approach for improving outcomes and reducing the burden of sepsis.

Louise McKinlay

Chief Executive Officer of Safer Care Victoria

Louise is a values-driven, strategic and compassionate executive leader, with a reputation for driving quality and safety across large and complex health systems and health services. She is a registered nurse with twenty-five-plus years of experience working across the health sector in both the UK and Australia.

Louise's expertise in teaching, policy, clinical governance, quality improvement, and patient safety led to her being appointed as one of the 8 inaugural directors that created Safer Care Victoria. Louise's extensive experience in clinical governance and strategic quality and safety systems management has resulted in significant policy and practice reforms across Victoria.

For the last 2 years, Louise has held a senior executive role in the Department of Health, with responsibility for a wide range of policy and program areas including workforce and spanning aged care, acute care and community health. Louise is very focused on consumer and clinician engagement to drive improvement and well versed in co-design and co-production.

David Anderson ASM

Medical Director at Ambulance Victoria; Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University Department of Paramedicine; Intensivist at Alfred Health

A/Prof David Anderson is the Medical Director of Ambulance Victoria – a large jurisdictional ambulance service covering all of Victoria; he is also an Intensive Care physician at The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne – a quaternary referral centre for heart and lung transplant, ECMO, major trauma and burns; and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Paramedicine at Monash University.

David worked as a paramedic in Auckland, New Zealand before completing medical training at the University of Auckland and then undertaking postgraduate training in intensive care medicine. During postgraduate training he also spent considerable spells working in anaesthesia, palliative medicine and prehospital and retrieval medicine in Auckland, Sydney and Toronto before settling in Melbourne. His interests are prehospital and retrieval medicine, trauma critical care, ECMO, palliative care and bioethics.

Toby Mathieson

Senior Project Officer, Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care

Toby Mathieson has 25 years experience and has held Director level roles at state and national level in digital health strategy and solution development including electronic medical records, virtual care, My Health Record and electronic prescribing/electronic medication management. He is driven by the benefits and outcomes digital health bring to health services, clinicians and consumers stemming from his nursing background.

Toby led the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care’s Pragmatic AI Guidance for Clinicians released in August 2025.

Amith Shetty

Clinical Director, System Sustainability and Performance, NSW Ministry of Health

A/Prof Amith Shetty is an Emergency physician, Clinical Director in the System Sustainability and Performance division at NSW Ministry of Health. He has held several senior clinical leadership roles across NSW health in Emergency departments, hospital in the home, eHealth and other organisations. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor in Biomedical Informatics and Digital health at University of Sydney, Adjunct fellow at Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research, Macquarie University, and honorary research fellow at the Westmead Institute for Medical research.

Dr Shetty was instrumental in the development and delivery of a live COVID-19 patient tracking and risk stratification platform for care of patients across NSW, including a risk score allowing for improved resource allocation of patients across care models. He is currently working closely with the Commonwealth, Primary Health networks, General practitioners, and GP-representative organisations to design the future of care in the community and leading the NSW Community Single Front Door program. Shetty’s doctoral studies on screening for sepsis in ED led to the characterization, development, and piloting of digital EMR screening tool which after validation is now being in use in Western Sydney for last three years. He has further collaborated with interstate and national bodies sharing the Sepsis algorithm work leading to development of Artificial intelligence-based sepsis screening tools in NSW and similar implementations in Queensland.

He continues to keep engaged in clinical activities through stints at rural Australian EDs and international charity missions.

Steve McGloughlin

Director, Intensive Care, The Alfred & Technical Officer Clinical Management, World Health Emergencies Programme, World Health Organization

Professor Steve McGloughlin is an intensive care physician and infectious diseases physician at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. He is the director of the Alfred ICU, a 62-bed quaternary ICU specialising in trauma, advanced cardiac support, ECMO and burns. in 2023 he is also working for the World Health Organisation in the health emergencies and pandemic preparedness program. 

He was the chair of the ANZICS COVID-19 guideline committee and is the current Clinical Director of the Australian Living Evidence Collaboration including the COVID 19 National Clinical Evidence Taskforce. He has been the lead author of the Australian Therapeutic Guidelines Sepsis chapter for the past 8 years and is also an author on the most recent version of the Surviving Sepsis Guideline.  He has completed a Masters of Public Health and a Masters of International Health Leadership. In 2022 he became a member of the College of Intensive Care Board and he has an amazing wife and three awesome kids, who are much better than him at everything.

About us

The Australian Sepsis Grand Round (ASGR) is an online event series that provides a forum for healthcare professionals to explore and debate aspects of best-practice sepsis care.  The series promotes collaborative efforts and showcases Australia's world-class treatment, expertise and resources. 

Formerly known as the Victorian Sepsis Grand Round (VSGR), Alfred Health and Sepsis Australia proudly present this initiative, which unites clinicians from across Australia and around the globe in the pursuit of excellence in sepsis management.

The ASGR provides a platform for clinicians involved in sepsis care to explore, debate, and showcase Australia's world-class treatment, expertise, and resources. Through collaboration with our partners, we curate a diverse program centred on pioneering research and medical practice that drives innovation in sepsis care.

Since its inception in 2021, the ASGR has been a beacon of knowledge exchange and professional development.

Collaborative Partners

Alfred Health

The Australian Sepsis Grand Round was, initiated by The Alfred Intensive Care Academic Centre and the Alfred Emergency Academic Centre.

The Alfred Intensive Care Academic Centre is the focal point of The Alfred ICU education and research programs, which aim to improve clinical outcomes by promoting active, integrated, and patient-focused knowledge generation, dissemination, and translation in intensive care medicine. The Alfred Intensive Care Unit is one of Australia’s largest units, leading innovation in critical care treatment, education, and research, and caring for all Victorians with life-threatening conditions.

Alfred Emergency Academic Centre operates one of Australasia’s busiest trauma centres, a major metropolitan emergency department and a community-based emergency department treating adult and paediatric patients. Our inter-disciplinary team works together to provide timely, quality care. Based on this ethos, we have developed a broad range of education and knowledge exchange activities that are open to all healthcare professionals and delivered in collaboration with Monash University.

Sepsis Australia

Sepsis Australia is a program of The George Institute for Global Health. It is a collaboration of individuals and organisations working to improve outcomes for patients with sepsis, as well as their friends and family. Our mission is to reduce the burden of disease (death and disability) due to sepsis by increasing awareness and recognition, improving clinical care and support, providing education for healthcare workers and undertaking research that directly translates into healthcare policy.

Safer Care Victoria

Safer Care Victoria helps Victorian health services:

• prevent and learn from patient harm

• identify and deliver service improvements

• engage with consumers.

The Safer Care Victoria website offers information and resources on clinical and professional leadership, safety, improvement, engagement, and other topics.

For more information on their work with the “Think Sepsis, Act Fast” collaborative, please review the following:

• Sepsis (for EDs and UCCs) | Safer Care Victoria

• Sepsis (whole-of-hospital) | Safer Care Victoria

Advancing Sepsis Care Through Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration

The Australian Sepsis Grand Round (ASGR) is a free online event series dedicated to advancing best-practice sepsis care and fostering collaboration among healthcare professionals. Since its inception as the Victorian Sepsis Grand Round in 2021, ASGR has become a hub for knowledge exchange and professional development, uniting clinicians from Australia and around the world.

Presented by Alfred Health, Sepsis Australia and Safer Care Victoria, ASGR provides a platform for exploring, debating, and showcasing Australia's world-class sepsis treatment and expertise. Through national collaborations, we curate diverse programs that focus on pioneering research and medical practices, driving innovation in sepsis care.

Join us at an Australian Sepsis Grand Round to help reduce the burden of sepsis, enhance patient care, and shape healthcare policy. Don’t miss this opportunity to expand your knowledge and contribute to the evolution of sepsis care.

For more information about sepsis, visit the Sepsis Australia website: australiansepsisnetwork.net.au. Stay updated on social media by following @sepsisAU, @EmergEdu or @LinkedIn_ICU and explore additional CME/CPD opportunities through Alfred Health in emergency care or intensive care.