Manu Malbrain (1965) graduated as a doctor (MD) from the Catholic University of Leuven in 1991. After his primary specialization in internal medicine (1996, KUL, highest distinction) he specialized in Intensive Care (1997).
He was ICU Director in various hospitals in Belgium (including Ste-Anne St-Remi in Anderlecht, Europe Hospitals campus Ste-Elisabeth in Uccle, ZNA Stuivenberg and St-Erasmus in Antwerp. where he was also responsible for the High Care Bum Unit and Hyperbaric Oxygen chamber, and the University Hospital Brussels in Jette).
As head of an ICU department, the organizational and administrative tasks increased to such an extent over the years that he continued his training through extensive studies in medical management (at the Vlerick Management School in Ghent, the EHSAL Hogeschool in Brussels and INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France)
He was part-time medical director at ZNA Stuivenberg and St-Erasmus for about 4 years (2013-2017). Afterwards, he was head of the ICU department and crisis manager at UZ Brussel (UZB).
He is current and founding president of the International Fluid Academy (www.fluidacademy.org) and is actively involved in the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM), where he chaired the Working Group on Abdominal Problems and sepsis (WGAP) within the POIC section (2009-2013). He is a member of the scientific subcommittee of the European Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC). He is also the founding president and current treasurer of the Abdominal Compartment Society (WSACS, www.wsacs.org
Prof. Friedrich Pühringer, who is Austrian, received his Medical Degree from Medical School at Innsbruck University, Austria in 1987. He held many academic positions of increasing importance between 1993 and 2000 at Innsbruck Medical School in the Anaesthesia Departments Gynecology and Obstetrics, ENT, Facial Maxillary Surgery, Cardiovascular Surgery, Traumatology and Emergency Medicine. In 1997 Habilitation and PhD for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at Innsbruck University.
Since 2000 until present he is Professor and Chairman at the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the Klinikum am Steinenberg in Reutlingen, an Academic hospital of the University of Tübingen, in Germany. Since 2008 he heads two additional anesthesia and intensive care departments at the hospitals in Bad Urach and Münsingen. His education also includes many other activities such as Management Education, receiving an MBA for Hospital Management, from the School of Economics at Innsbruck University. Since 2009 he is also Medical Director at the Kreiskliniken Reutlingen too.
Professor Pühringer´s main research interests are within pharmacology of muscle relaxants, their reversals and neuromuscular monitoring as well as pharmacology of volatile anaesthetics. He also worked on supraglottic airway devices and focuses on difficult airway management and strategies in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine. He is author and co-author more than 90 original papers and numerous letters to editor and several editorials and several chapters in various books. He has given more than 500 lectures at international and national conferences and meetings. In addition, Professor Pühringer is a reviewer for various international anaesthesia journals.
