Jeffrey Lipman

Biography

Prof Lipman is Executive Director of the Burns Trauma & Critical Care Research Centre; Director of Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital; Professor of Anesthesiology & Critical Care, The University of Queensland; Honorary Professor, Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Adjunct Professor, School of Nursing, QUT. He has qualifications in anesthesia and intensive care and has set up and been in charge of a number of Intensive Care and Trauma Units in South Africa before coming to Australia in 1997. he currently manages a large multidisciplinary research team with an output of over 120 peer-reviewed articles per annum. He has recently supervised 3 PhD students to completion and is currently supervising 6 PhD, 1 MPhil and 1 MBBS/Hons students. Prof Lipman has been instrumental in developing the anaesthesiology and critical care component of a graduate medical program for Queensland and continues to lecture to medical and postgraduate students.

Research Interest

Antibiotic dosing in critically ill patients Severe sepsis is defined as failure of one or more organ systems, most commonly cardiovascular (including shock), respiratory and renal failure, caused by infection. Bacteria, either alone or in combination with other pathogens, are the most common cause of severe sepsis, and Gram-positive and Gram-negative organism account for up to 87% of culture positive episodes. Severe sepsis is a major cause of mortality worldwide. The ANZICS CTG reported that the Australian and New Zealand adult annual incidence of severe sepsis is 77 cases per 100,000,4 which is equivalent to over 17,000 patient episodes per year at an estimated cost per episode of AUD 42,300. Similar population incidence rates have been reported elsewhere. Importantly, 11.8% of all admissions to Australian and New Zealand ICUs are associated with severe sepsis and in-hospital mortality is 37.5%. In patients with septic shock, mortality approaches 60%. The burden of death is almost four times the annual national road toll. The death rate also exceeds other diseases that impact significantly on the Australian community, such as breast and colorectal cancer. In short, severe sepsis is a major public health concern in Australia and improved therapies are needed urgently. My research group is conducting national and international clinical trials investigating the effect of various dosing regimes on health outcomes in critically ill patients.