The Brisbane Network - BIN

Marianne Kirrane & Matt Keys

The Brisbane Intensive Care Network started with a bang in August 2011... Dr John Morgan from the Mater talked to a great first audience, including some 15 trainees and a few Fellows, about 'The Truth about Buffers' at The Coro in Milton. I clearly understood buffers and SID for the duration of the evening, but fear the subsequent wine and merriment wiped it all from my memory. It was a promising start and the feedback was very encouraging.

Two months later, 30 Brisbane trainees and Fellows gathered at Brisbane's worst Vegetarian restaurant, the Norman Hotel, for a whistlestop tour of Antibiotics - from Bench to Bedside by our local world expert Prof Lipman from RBWH. There was standing room only, as numbers were swelled by some of our recently appointed ICU pathway registrars - keen beans given they are only starting their first ICM post as you read this. Apart from the educational value, the newbies appreciated the opportunity to meet advanced trainees and 'scary' specialists from both sides of the river in a social setting. Apparently the vegetarian option was surprisingly edible given the venue's reputation.

In December the trio of Ben Margetts, Hamish Pollock and Tim Warhurst from Redcliffe ICU puzzled a booked out room with their trickier cases - and proved that the smaller metropolitan ICUs treat amazing pathology regularly! Apart from the recurrent cries of 'withdraw treatment' from the crowd from the Royal Brisbane and Women's, three teams ooh'd over weird findings and battled it out for honour. The courses fitted between questions - and the Australian degustation menu from the award winning mod-OzAustralia restaurant Tukka, featuring smoked possum and other cured native meats, Crocodile Carpaccio and roo fillet climaxed with a local blossom sorbet.

The 2012 challenge is to maintain the standard set in 2011, and we are off to a cracking start when A/Prof Dr John Fraser, Senior Staff Specialist at TPCH, speaks on April 24th and then on June 12th, we welcome RBWH ICU pharmacist Dr Jason Roberts talks on about Antibiotic pKa/pKd in dialysis. Jason has published extensively on the topic and is starting to rival Prof Lipman's conference related airmiles, with recent presentations at several conferences in the US... Venues will be confirmed shortly!

We have lots more exciting speakers locally, many of whom have already expressed support for these meetings so stay tuned for more meetings. We're also exploring the possibility of a practical session later this year - given the military expertise now based at RBWH, we may try for something action related...

B.I.N events for 2013

For more information, contact us on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or catch up with Matt Keys or Marianne Kirrane at one of the meetings.