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 worldwide.

Presented by Alfred Health and Sepsis Australia, ASGR provides a platform for exploring, debating, and showcasing Australia's world-class sepsis treatment and expertise. Through national collaborations, we curate diverse programs focused on pioneering research and medical practices that drive 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.

Program:

1830-1835 Welcome and introduction

1835-1845 Consumer Story: Mary Steele

1845-1925 RECOGNITION

1845 - 1855 Paediatrics: Dr Erin Mills, Monash Health

1855 - 1905 Rural Care: Larissa Barclay, Timboon & District Healthcare Service

1905 - 1925 Speaker Panel

1925 - 1950 EVIDENCE UPDATE

1925 - 1940 Antibiotics Administration in Sepsis Treatment: Dr Hafiz Abdul-Aziz, University of Queensland

1940 - 1950 Speaker Panel

1950 - 2015 GLOBAL UPDATE

1950 - 2005 Sepsis Global Update: Prof Steve McGloughlin, The Alfred & World Health Organization

2005 - 2015 Speaker Panel

2015 - 2030 Final Remarks and close

Dr Hafiz Abdul-Aziz

Research Fellow, University of Queensland

Dr. Mohd Hafiz Abdul-Aziz is an Early Career Research Fellow and Clinical Research Pharmacist at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research (UQCCR), Australia. He currently leads the Clinical Dosing Studies and Knowledge Translation Workstream within the Antimicrobial Optimisation Group and the Centre for Research Excellence for Personalising Antimicrobial Dosing to Reduce Resistance (CRE RESPOND) at UQCCR. Dr. Abdul-Aziz holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy (IIUM) and a Master of Clinical Pharmacy (UKM) from Malaysia and completed his PhD at the University of Queensland in 2016. His doctoral thesis focused on pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic-optimised beta-lactam dosing in critically ill patients.

As a clinical pharmacist with a strong interest in clinical research, Dr. Abdul-Aziz is particularly focused on multi-centre and multi-national collaborations. His current research program aims to develop innovative methods for optimising antimicrobial dosing and delivery to improve patient outcomes in the ICU. He has extensive experience in designing and conducting multi-national clinical pharmacokinetic studies in the ICU. Over the past five years, he has led or coordinated eight multi-national antimicrobial pharmacokinetic studies, including the ASAP ECMO, BLING 3, BLING 3 PK/PD, and PNEUDOS studies.

Dr. Abdul-Aziz is a Fellow of the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC) and serves as the Chair of the Infections in the ICU and Sepsis Working Group of ISAC. He has maintained active collaborations with over 100 collaborators from 36 countries.

Larissa Barclay

Director of Clinical Services, Timboon & District Healthcare Service

Larissa Barclay is the Director of Clinical Services at Timboon and District Healthcare Service. In her role, she oversees clinical operations, ensuring the delivery of high-quality healthcare services. Larissa is dedicated to improving consumer outcomes and implementing innovative clinical strategies to enhance service efficiency and care quality.

With 18 years of experience in health care, Larissa Barclay has undertaken various roles across the healthcare continuum: Medical and palliative care, surgical, emergency, and community health, with a significant portion in maternity services, including 10 years of senior nursing and midwifery leadership.

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.

Mary Steele

Consumer Advocate, Sepsis Australia

Mary lost her son Preston James on 10 August 2003 at two and a half years of age to sepsis. Preston had been suffering pneumonia from a simple virus but became overwhelmed with sepsis within a short time. At the time of his death sepsis was not communicated as the cause.

After Preston's death, Mary collaborated with the Mater Foundation to establish the Preston James Fund which enabled significant advancements in respiratory research and practice for children. Ten major areas of research were supported over eight years.

Through her work with the Preston James Fund, Mary began to understand more about Preston’s death through building relationships with medical staff and families. She assisted researchers by engaging with other families who lost their children to sepsis to support their investigations and research.

Today, Mary is the Paediatric Consumer Representative on the Queensland Sepsis Steering Committee and has been contributing to this committee since 2019. Mary is a member of the Queensland Paediatric Sepsis Project Executive Committee and a member of Sepsis Australia’s consumer group. Mary is also the Deputy Chair of The George Institute for Global Health’s Consumer and Community Advisory Committee.

In a professional capacity, Mary is a business communication consultant and director of STEELE Comms & Engagement. Mary is also a non-executive board member of the Princess Alexandra Research Foundation.

Dr Erin Mills

Paediatric Emergency Medicine Physician, Monash Health

Dr Mills currently works a paediatric emergency physician at Monash Medical Centre, and is also the quality lead for Emergency Services at Monash Health. She completed a year-long Patient Safety fellowship at Safer Care Victoria, developing her knowledge of human factors, improvement science, adverse event review methodologies and building a safety culture. Erin continues to work at Safer Care Victoria on a number of working groups and improvement projects, as well as working as a Senior Clinical Advisor for the Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Morbidity and Mortality (CCOPMM).

Much of Dr Mills’ work has been focussed on changing the culture of healthcare so clinicians really partner with patients and their families as active members of the healthcare team. She has an interest in developing systems to improve the recognition of deterioration in paediatric patients, which is particularly challenging in sepsis.

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