Welcome to our first episode recorded at the London Trauma Conference 2024.

In this episode, hosts Iain Beardsell and Natalie May are joined by Matt Hooper from Adelaide to discuss his unique career path, from emergency medicine to pre-hospital and retrieval medicine, intensive care, and more recently, palliative and end-of-life care.

The conversation centres around the principles of end-of-life care, particularly in acute and traumatic scenarios, and how these can be integrated with life-saving efforts. Key points include the challenges of shifting focus from survival to quality of death, the importance of recognizing and supporting witnesses and caregivers, and the concept of 'compassionate resuscitation.'

Practical tools such as the 'pause' are also explored, aiming to humanize highly charged medical environments and potentially prevent burnout and PTSD among healthcare providers.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

01:00 Key Messages on Death and Palliative Care

02:12 Challenges in End-of-Life Care

03:20 Improving Quality of Death and Relationships

04:32 Emotional Impact on Care Providers

06:41 Navigating End-of-Life Conversations

12:17 Practical Applications in Intensive Care

16:41 The Pause: A Tool for Reflection 21:58 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Matt is an accomplished intensive care specialist with a diverse background in emergency medicine, prehospital & retrieval medicine, and palliative care.

Notable for his leadership in developing critical care service models, he founded South Australia’s MedSTAR Emergency Medical Retrieval Service. He has also co-authored a highly regarded case-based text book and held key teaching and examining roles nationally and internationally in prehospital and retrieval medicine.

With a strong focus on high-performance teams working within high acuity, high consequence environments, Matt's expertise has also extended to human factors in healthcare, cardiothoracic intensive care, ECMO, and clinical ultrasound. More recently however, he has pivoted towards palliative and end of life care, pursuing a Master's degree at Cardiff University and consulting at Mary Potter Hospice in Adelaide. He is passionate about exploring new and innovative ways to prevent potentially avoidable suffering and enhance end of life outcomes for patients in acute care clinical environments.