Dr. Amy Dzierba is a clinical pharmacist in the Medical ICU at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She completed her undergraduate work and Doctor of Pharmacy degree at Midwestern University School of Pharmacy. Thereafter, Dr. Dzierba completed her PGY1 pharmacy residency at Grady Health System followed by a Post-Graduate Year 2 pharmacy residency in critical care at the University of Washington / Harborview Medical Center. Her research interests include sedation/analgesia/delirium in mechanically ventilated patients, pharmacotherapy for the management of ARDS, pharmacokinetic changes in critically ill patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygen support, and treatment of patients with pulmonary hypertension.

Dr. Kiran Shekar is a Senior Intensive Care Specialist and Director of Research at the Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. He holds academic appointments as Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology and Associate Professor at University of Queensland. Shekar is passionate about addressing the global variability in intensive care and extracorporeal life support (ECLS) outcomes through innovation, research, and education. His research interests include pathophysiology of cardiorespiratory failure, ECLS and mechanical circulatory support. His PhD work,” The ECMO PK Project” resulted in an advanced understanding of altered PK/PD on ECMO and provided doing guidance for commonly used antimicrobial and sedative drugs.

Ben Hohlfelder is a CVICU Pharmacy Clinical Specialist who has been with Cleveland Clinic since 2016. He previously worked at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston, MA) where he completed his PGY-1 and PGY-2 Pharmacy Residency in Critical Care. Within ECMOPharm, his primary areas of interest are management of pain, agitation and delirium, anticoagulation management strategies, and treatment strategies for refractory vasoplegic shock in patients requiring mechanical circulatory support.

Rawan Alraish born and raised from Kuwait moved to berlin, Germany to complete her medical studies at The Charité-University Hospital in 2020. During her undergraduate years, she embarked on a doctoral project concerning the appropriate dosage of antibiotics for critically ill patients starting in 2016. Her subsequent research concentrated on the pharmacokinetics of antibiotics and antifungals among adult patients receiving extracorporeal life support at Al-Amiri Hospital in Kuwait. Presently, she is pursuing a postgraduate residency program in Anesthesia at Charité University Hospital, Berlin, Germany. As a member of the ECMOPharm Rawan is particularly interested in the intersection of pharmacology and ECMO, with a focus on optimizing drug dosing and management for patients on extracorporeal life support.

Dr. Paternoster is a cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesiologist and intensivist at the San Carlo University hospital in Potenza Italy. He is the ECMO and DCD program manager with research interest in the ECMO sector, with particular attention to awake ECMO techniques. Author of papers and book chapters in the field of ECMO strategies and coagulation management in ECMO.

Prof. Luigi Milella achieved his Ph.D. in Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Basilicata. Now, he is an Associate Professor in Pharmaceutical Biology at the Department of Science and Coordinator of the MsC of Pharmacy. He carries out research focused on the chemical structure, bioavailability and biological activity of small molecules from different sources, by using advanced chromatographic methods, in vitro cell-based and in silico studies. He also conducts research in the field of gender medicine to define differences in drug efficacy.

Dr Hafiz Abdul–Aziz is an Early Career Research Fellow and a Clinical Research Pharmacist at The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research (UQCCR) at The University of Queensland, Australia. He is a Clinical Research Associate and Clinical Trial Monitor at The George Institute for Global Health, Australia. Dr Abdul–Aziz received his Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) and Master of Clinical Pharmacy degrees from Malaysia, prior to completing his PhD at The University of Queensland in 2016. His current research program seeks to define novel and innovative methods to optimize antimicrobial dosing/delivery to improve patient outcomes in the ICU, including those receiving ECMO. Dr Abdul–Aziz is a Fellow of the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC) and the current Chair of the Infections in the ICU and Sepsis Working Group of International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC).

Dr. Arias Ortiz is a Senior Attending Critical Care Physician at Calderon Guardia Hospital, a Public Social Security, University Affiliated Hospital, and a high complexity center with Cardiac surgery, heart, lung, liver transplant programs and ECMO/VAD capacity. His background formation is in Internal Medicine and Critical Care, with expertise in cardiac surgery, heart/lung and liver transplant, ECMO support and ventricular assist devices. He is working with the University of Costa Rica to develop antimicrobial TDM to optimize dosage regimens in the ICU and ECMO patients.

Mark Alm is a Cardiovascular Perfusionist at University Health Network and MSc student at the Medical University of South Carolina. He previously worked as an ICU RN caring for ECLS patients. His interests include: standardization of criteria for extracorporeal circuit dysfunction, clinical applications for ECMO exhaust gas analysis, and the impact of extracorporeal circulation systems on pharmacokinetics and its relevance to clinical decision-making. 

Dr. Carini is a critical care physician, original from Argentina, currently doing a clinical and research fellow at the University of Toronto (Ontario, Canada). He finished his residence in critical care in 2013, and then worked for 10+ years as a staff with a focus on implementation on delirium and sedation best practices in the ICU. He also completed a MSc in clinical effectiveness, and a specialization in medical education. His interest in ECMOPharm is related to his commitment to implement best practices in particular related to the ABCDEF bundle. On a side note, he is a sport (triathlon) enthusiast, with more enthusiasm than success. 

Dr. Claudia Catarinella is an Internal Medicine and Critical Care Specialist at Hospital Calderón Guardia in Costa Rica. She provides specialized care to critically ill patients, with a particular focus on those requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support and organ transplant. Dr. Catarinella is dedicated to advancing ECMO management and patient outcomes in resource limited settings. Her research interests include differences in pharmacological approaches in resource limited settings and developed countries and optimizing clinical protocols for ECMO patients. 

Joseph Marcus is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences and an infectious diseases physician at Brooke Army Medical Center. His research interests are in the diagnosis and treatment of ECMO-associated infections with particular interest on optimizing antimicrobials to improve outcomes for patients receiving ECMO.