I am a Consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine, working on the intensive care unit at Derriford hospital. My main research interest oxygen physiology; in particular how humans adapt to low levels of oxygen and the potential harm caused by excessive oxygen. This interest arose from my involvement in a series of research expeditions to high altitude with the Xtreme Everest team. In 2007, as part of my PhD, a group of us took arterial blood samples from one another near the summit of Mount Everest, which had some of the lowest oxygen levels ever reported in humans. In our hunt for key adaptive processes we have measured our mitochondrial function and compared it to that of high altitude Sherpas; we have investigated the function of the microcirculation and conducted a wide range of other studies at various altitudes over the last 15 years. We are continuing this area of research at sea level in partnership with colleagues at DDRC Healthcare.

I am currently the chief investigator for the NIHR funded UK-ROX trial and EXAKT study in the UK. In the UK-ROX trial we are evaluating whether giving a little less oxygen than usual to critically ill patients on a mechanical ventilator will improve their survival. The aim is to recruit 16,500 patients from 100 NHS intensive care units. In the EXAKT study we will be investigating the accuracy pulse oximeters in 900 critically ill patients with different skin tones, to answer a very important question about these essential oxygen monitoring devices.

I am also very interested in exercise and how it can be used to improve clinical outcomes. We have used a tailored exercise intervention to train patients waiting for liver transplantation and I am the co-chief investigator of the NIHR-funded EXALT trial in which we will further evaluate the effect of exercise around the time of liver transplantation. I am also invoked with a study to explore the benefits of exercise programmes in patients awaiting bariatric surgery.

I am the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia academic training coordinator and Royal College of Anaesthetists Bernard Johnson advisor for academic training. I am passionate about promoting academic training for both doctors in training and allied health professionals. I supervise a number of higher degree students including scientists, medical doctors and allied health professionals.

I have been the Editor in Chief of the Journal of the Intensive Care Society for the last six years and sit on the Council of the Intensive Care Society.

In 2015 I was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), for services to the prevention of infectious diseases. This was the result of our work at the Royal Free Hospital in London, caring for patients with Ebola virus disease.

My Orcid profile can be found here: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6220-8235