Speakers 

Giuseppe Citerio is a Professor of Anesthesia and Intensive Care at the School of Medicine and Surgery, Milano Bicocca University. He currently serves as the Director of the Department of Neuroscience at IRCSS San Gerardo dei Tintori in Monza. In the early 1990s, he established the Neurointensive and Neuroanesthesia service at San Gerardo Hospital in Monza, following his prior experience at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan.

Dr.Citerio is an active participant in several national and international research networks, including BrainIT and CenterTBI. He has been involved in several research protocols and drug trials, often serving as the principal investigator. His research is focused on TBI, subarachnoid hemorrhage, neuroanesthesia, neurointensive care, and brain death/organ donation. He has authored over 480 indexed articles, and his H-index is 59. Dr. Citerio has been instrumental in developing international guidelines for treating patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage and neuromonitoring. He has edited several books, including "Oxford Textbook of Neurocritical Care" and "Echography and Doppler of the Brain."

Dr. Citerio has designed more than 50 courses in Italy and Europe on Neurointensive Care topics. He also created a Summer School program at UNIMIB on NeuroIntensive Care, which took place for the first time in 2017. In 2019, Dr. Citerio became the Editor-in-Chief of the journal after years of editorial perience. He previously served as the Chair of the Division of Scientific Affairs of the European Society of Intensive Care (ESICM), an Executive Committee member of ESICM, and the Chair of the Annual Meeting ESICM and regional congresses.

School of Medicine, University of Milano-Bicocca and IRCCS San Gerardo dei Tintori Monza, NeuroIntensive Care Unit, Monza, Italy

Dr. Claassen is an Associate Professor of Neurology and the Director of Critical Care Neurology at Columbia University. He is an Associate Attending Physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and the Medical Director of the Neurocritical Care Unit. Dr. Claassen received his medical degree from the University of Hamburg, Germany, and completed residency training in Neurology, and Fellowship training in Neurocritical Care and Epilepsy at Columbia University. He is board certified in Neurology and Neurocritical Care.

Dr Claassen is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in the treatment of neurological intensive care. He is an expert in coma, status epilepticus and brain hemorrhages. He served on the board of directors and as the co-chair for guidelines development for the Neurocritical Care Society. He has championed the use of innovative brain monitoring techniques including continuous EEG monitoring. His sits on the editorial board of Annals of Neurology and Neurocritical Care.

Dr Claassen’s research characterizes physiologic changes following acute brain injury, focusing on novel treatment approaches to potentially improve patient outcomes. He is a widely recognized expert on disorders of consciousness.

Department of Neurology, Division of Critical Care and Hospitalist Neurology, Columbia University, New York - USA

Raimund HELBOK is Professor of Neurology and  Head Department of Neurology at the Kepler Universitätsklinikum in Linz. Austria.

He did his medical training at the Medical University of Innsbruck and obtained a Master Degree in Clinical Tropical Medicine at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand. After his training in General Medicine and Neurology he conducted his research fellowship at the Division of Neurocritical Care, Department of Neurology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, USA.

Dr. Helbok’s clinical practice covers the spectrum of neurology and neurocritical care, including the management of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, traumatic brain injury, status epilepticus, neuromuscular diseases, autoimmune encephalitis and neuroinfectious diseases.

His major research interest is monitoring of the central nervous system in critical care patients with primary head injury as tool to prevent secondary brain injury. He has conducted many academic studies in the field of advanced neuromonitoring techniques including cerebral microdialyis, brain oxygen monitoring and electroencephalography with specific interest in “cortical spreading depolarisations”. Another field of interest is infectious diseases involving the central nervous system based on clinical care of patients with i.e. meningitis, encephalitis, brain abscess and his academic degree in clinical tropical medicine.  He is collaborator of different international trials and is involved in guidelines and consensus conferences.  He is active member of several national and international societies, i.e. European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM, neurocritical care section), European Academy of Neurology (EAN, scientific committee neurocritical care and neuroinfectious diseases), Austrian Society of Neurology. 

He is one of the leaders of the Curing Coma Campaign.

Klinikvorstand Universitätsklinik für Neurologie - Kepler Universitätsklinikum GmbH, Linz, Austria

Carolina Iaquaniello is a specialist in Anesthesiology and Intensive Care. Born in Rome, she has traveled a lot both for professional and personal growth, landing in Monza for her residency under the mentoring of Prof. Citerio, where she discovered her passion for all that is brain-related in the critical area. Member of the NIC section of ESICM, she is currently working as an attending in the Neuroanesthesiology and Postoperative neurointensive care unit at the Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta in Milano.

Her motto? “Be curious. Keep reading”

Neuroanesthesia and Intensive Care, Department of Neurosurgery, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy. 

Professor Geoffrey T. Manley, MD, PhD is the Chief of Neurosurgery at San Francisco General Hospital and Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). He is a trauma neurosurgeon with clinical interests in brain injury, spinal cord injury and neurocritical critical care. His translational research interests span from the laboratory to the bedside.

Pr. Manley is a graduate of the Medical Scientist Training Program at Cornell University Medical College, where he earned his medical degree as well as his doctorate degree in Neuroscience. He completed his residency in Neurosurgery at UCSF and a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Molecular Biophysics. Pr. Manley is also a faculty member of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences and the UCSF Center for Clinical and Translational Informatics.

Pr. Manley is an internationally recognized expert in neurotrauma. He has published over 120 manuscripts that reflect a wide range of research interests from molecular aspects of brain injury to the clinical care of head trauma patients. He has helped to define new molecular mechanisms of injury to the nervous system that may lead to new treatments for these devastating injuries. He is also considered a leader in the rapidly growing field of advanced neuromonitoring and clinical informatics for critical care. His many honors include the General Motors Trauma Research Award and the Trauma Research Award from the American College of Surgeons. He has served as a Consultant for the Prehospital Guidelines Committee for the World Health Organization and on a number of committees for the National Institutes of Health.

Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco 

Geert Meyfroidt is Professor of Medicine at the University of Leuven and Consultant Intensivist at the University Hospitals Leuven, in Belgium. He is funded by the Flemish Government as Senior Clinical Investigator. Current research projects include: data mining and predictive modeling in neuro-intensive care and acute kidney injury; clinical and laboratory studies on cerebrovascular autoregulation; ketamine and brain injury; convalescent plasma for COVID-19. He is president of the Belgian Society of Intensive Care Medicine, and chair of the Neuro-Intensive Care section of  ESICM.

Intensive Care Medicine, UZ Leuven, Belgium

Dr. Aarti Sarwal is a neurologist at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. She specializes in emergency and trauma care.

Dr. Sarwal is a neurocritical care physician that takes care of critically ill patients with neurological injuries or those that have undergone complex neurosurgical procedures. She is board certified in Neurology, Neurocritical Care and Neurosonology. Her clinical interests include non-invasive monitoring, critical care ultrasound, neuro-ultrasound, ventilator related complications and intracranial hemorrhage. She participates in clinical research focused on improving patient outcomes.  

Dr. Sarwal received her medical training from Government Medical College, Patiala (India), Neurology Residency at University of Missouri, Columbia, MO  followed by Neurocrtocal Care fellowship at Cleveland Clinic, OH. She is currently the Medical Director of Neurocritical Care Unit at Wake Forest Baptist Health Center, Winston Salem, USA. Aarti is a passionate educator and the Co-Director of the Ultrasound Curriculum at Wake Forest School of Medicine. Aarti’s research and clinical interests focus on point of care applications of ultrasound in Neurocritical care and non invasive imaging modalities for monitoring of Neurocritical care patients. She is a faculty for several national and international Ultrasound workshops as well as Course director for ultrasound workshops. She is listed by US News and World Report among Best Doctors. She is also a champion for use of social media platforms in medical education.

Division of Neurocritical Care Chief, Dept of Neurology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond - USA

Fabio S. Taccone is Professor at the Department of Intensive Care of Hopital Erasme and Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Brussels (Belgium). He received his medical degree from the University of Naples, Italy (SUN) in 2000 and obtained post-graduate licenses in Internal Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine at ULB. He obtained in October 2014 his PhD doctoral degree with a thesis on cerebral microcirculation during sepsis. Pr. Taccone has a large area of interest in critical care medicine, with a particular research in antibiotic pharmacokinetics, brain injury, microcirculation during severe infections, therapeutic hypothermia as a neuro-protective strategy and ECMO. He has authored more than 220 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and is Section Editor of Minerva Anestesiologica and BMC Emergency Medicine. He is also Chair of the Neuro-Intensive Care section of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) since 2016 and member of the Advisory Board of the International Symposium of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (ISICEM) since 2011 as well of two different Working Groups at EuroELSO. 

Department of Intensive Care, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Bruxelles, Belgium 

Elisa R. Zanier trained in Medicine, Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at the University of Milano. She was a Post-doctoral fellow at the Neurotrauma Laboratory, University of Los Angeles, California. She was consultant at the Neuro-Intensive Care Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milano from 2003-2007. Since 2007, she has a teaching assignment into postgraduate school of Intensive Care and Anesthesiology, University of Milano. Since 2007, she is associate researcher at the Mario Negri Institute, Milano, Italy. From 2012-2016 she leaded the Unit of Acute Brain Injury and Cell Therapy, now she is Head of the Laboratory of Acute Brain Injury and Therapeutic Strategies, and Director of the Department of Acute Cerebral Cardiovascular Damage.

Her research interests are on acute brain injury through parallel exploration of mechanisms in the clinical setting (through invasive monitoring and neuro-imaging) and in the lab, where to refine experimental models and develop neurorestorative treatments. 

Laboratory of Traumatic Brain Injury and Neuroprotection, Department of Acute Brain and Cardiovascular Injury, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milano, Italy.