Jellybean 098 with Dr Susanna Price

Today’s guest is Dr Susanna Price, Clinical Lead in Critical Care, Royal Brompton Hospital, President Elect of the European Society of Cardiology, published everywhere and co-author of too many guidelines to mention.

Fresh off the flight from London Susanna stepped up and talked sense to the biggest crowd ever to attend a CICM ASM. The cardiology focused meeting was a bit of a silo smasher. Perhaps no group of patients bridge across the divide between paediatric and adult intensive care more than the “Grown Up Congenital Heart Disease” (GUCH) patient. These are amazing people with amazing medical histories and they are around in greater and greater numbers. They may have started in a hyper-specialised surgical centres but they might end up in any emergency department anywhere. The catch is that these people will not always know all the details of their past interventions. They were, after all, children at the time. Even if you understand what their original pathology was you may not know what type of surgery was done, where, why, when, who and do we still do that?

Don’t be afraid, be informed. Susanna Price cracks opens a GUCH treasure chest to show us what is in there. This podcast contains numerous educational tips and free online resources.

The CICM ASM in Hobart worked hard to shine a light on the areas of critical care cardiology that cross the borders between specialties and the borders between paediatric, adolescent and adult intensive care. Dr Price’s clinical practice crosses borders and she is a Dual Trained UK Cardiologist and Intensivist, a rather rare combination in Britain.

Sometimes doing one specialty is not enough. For some it’s an intellectual journey, for others it might be a migration. For a few it is a way to make things happen. Important things. Like getting your patient to the cath lab or into theatre. Not satisfied with just being a top intensivist, Susanna Price also became a cardiologist, which helps when you are working at the www.rbht.nhs.uk/, the largest specialist heart and lung centre in the UK. It turns out that adult intensivists still need to know about paediatric congenital heart diseases and their management, because having survived their childhood, with or without surgery, they turn up as adults in any hospital. This matters. It affects assessment, monitoring and therapies. They may not even know they have or “had” a congenital heart disease.

But there is help. Susanna and her European Society of Cardiology colleagues have decided that this is so important, they built an educational platform and give access away for free: ESC Grown Up Congenital Heart Disease (GUCH) E-Learning

Susanna mentions and credits one particular person that she worked with; Adult Congenital Heart Disease pioneer, Dr Jane Somerville. Jane is indeed one of the great characters in modern medicine and you can watch her speak here

However, being quintessentially British, it is far more appropriate to hear her on the iconic BBC Radio show Desert Island Discs. (Forward to 1:46 for the start of the show.)

Thanks to Dr Matt McPartlin who steps in to the help capture the best of the CICM ASM 2018 in the CICMxJellybean series and brings insightful use of obscure 1970’s sitcoms to the world of Critical Care. Don’t be afraid of the “GUCH”.

THE CICMxJB Collaboration.

In 2018 the College of Intensive Care Medicine of Australia and New Zealand held its Annual Scientific Meeting in Hobart, Tasmania. They invited the Jellybean Podcast along and asked us to interview the four international speakers.

The ASM was named “Into the heart of ICU”. The theme of the conference was critical care cardiology. This presented a great opportunity to reach across the parallel, but distinct, specialities of Adult and Paediatric Intensive Care Medicine and the organisers grabbed it with both hands.

Great credit should be given to Benoj Varghese, Allan Beswick, Hamish Jackson, David Cooper, Michael Ashbolt and David Ransley. Not only did they deliver a fascinating meeting they also attracted the highest number of delegates in the 15 year history of the ASM.

This theme was a perfect for the Hobart intensivists. Hobart is the smallest state capital in Australia with a population of less that 230,000 and only Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory has fewer residents. In spite of this Hobart and Launceston provide a remarkably broad range of services in every area of intensive care. The small team of highly qualified and broadly experienced intensive care physicians practice in a unique work environment. This is fitting as Tasmania as a whole is unique in so many ways.

It is also a credit to Charlie Corke and the CICM team led by Stephanie Gershon that the ASM goes from strength to strength and that they have made this step into the #FOAMed world.

Here are the links to Dr Susanna Price at the ASM;

• TAVI. What’s next? by Dr Susanna Price
• ECHO by the clinician by Dr Susanna Price
• Debate: Who should care for GUCH?
• GUCH – A growing problem

The CICM ASM organisers requested that we interview the main international speakers but that doesn’t stop us doing what we usually do…. interview anyone with a good story. There will be 5 or 6 “normal” Jellybeans coming from the Hobart ASM. Photographs were taken and used with the permission of the interviewee.

The Intro and Outro music clips used in this series of Podcasts are courtesy of Swedish artist Ikson. Ikson’s work can be found on Soundcloud; https://soundcloud.com/ikson

When you’ve finished all that you may need a break. Here is one of the “GUCH/Gooch” classics from the retrospectively tragic TV show, Different Strokes

Matthew Mac Partlin

A Dubliner living in Sydney. Critical care (ED, ICU) and motor sport physician. FOAMed knowmad. Podcaster, 3D printing tinker and digital reality journeyman. Bassist and drummer. Cyclist. | @rollcagemedic | Website |