It’s safer to intubate critically ill patients without muscle relaxation - Rob Mac Sweeney (Pro) & Alex Psirides (Con)

Rob Mac Sweeney is an intensivist working at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He founded and runs Critical Care Reviews, a free, not-for-profit critical care educational project spanning a website, journal watch facility, newsletter, international meeting, annual book and podcast. He also co-founded a platinium open access journal, Critical Care Horizons. Rob is a passionate believer that scientific advances, especially through publically funded research, should be available to all and works to promote open access to such work through Critical Care Reviews and Critical Care Horizons.

Alex Psirides is an Intensive Care specialist working in Wellington, having trained in London, Melbourne and New Zealand. He has been involved in the design and implementation of Rapid Response Systems in several different hospitals. Because of this, he is clinical lead for the New Zealand Health Quality & Safety Commission’s national ‘Deteriorating Patient’ programme. In his spare time, when not walking his dog or his children, he builds websites & designs logos for Wellington ICU’s prodigious research department. He has nearly written a lot more research papers & as such needs to spend less time on Twitter. He also once ventilated a chimpanzee but it didn’t end well (for the chimp).