Priority Speakers

The daily Priority Sessions feature some of the most internationally renowned speakers working in the perioperative area. Priority Sessions bring all congress delegates together with no sessions running in parallel.

Please click on the below accordion to open each Priority Session and (re)discover the priority speakers.

On the move, into our future
Patrick E. Voight RN, MSA, BSN, CNOR, United States

Patrick E. Voight RN, MSA, BSN, CNOR, is a Managing Director with Deloitte Consulting and serves as a Perioperative and Interventional Services Consulting leader for the United States. As a registered nurse with 30 years of experience, he has supported clients in all settings across the US, Canada and Australia including Acute Care Hospitals; Academic Medical Centers; Private and State Health Systems; and the Military Healthcare and Veterans Administration. As an experienced consultant, Patrick has provided services to over 400 hospitals focusing on Perioperative and Interventional services to improve performance, reduce cost, while focused on quality and safety.
While working at Deloitte Consulting, Patrick served as Chief of Staff to former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson at the Center for Health Solutions in Washington, DC. While at the Center he focused on the quality delivery of healthcare and healthcare reform in the United States.
Patrick is recognized both nationally and internationally through his service to perioperative practice serving as a past national President of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) and currently serving as the Treasurer for the International Federation of Perioperative Registered Nurses (IFPN).

The forensic way of watching. How tunnel vision is lurking everywhere
Dr. Frank van de Goot, The Netherlands
Dr. van de Goot is a well-known pathologist in the Netherlands with the nickname “snail” which should not be considered indicative of his tempo. He travels throughout the world giving lectures and hosts a TV show named “Doden Liegen niet”.
Frank is both a surgical and forensic pathologist working at the North West Hospital Group in Alkmaar as a team member of Symbiant. A specialist in autopsy pathology and Neuro-oncology, he has over 100 publications with subjects running the gamut from medical themes to the death of a pharaoh, for Frank also studies Egyptology and Assyriology. Frank’s specialties are injury dating, cardio pathology and physical reconstruction used to provide necessary answers in the court of law.
Working internationally, he provides services as well as autopsies in uncommon areas such as the Congo and has been called on for his expertise in physical searches of missing persons in places like Panama or Uganda. Not limiting himself to the bipedal world, he is also involved in animal forensics together with veterinarian Monique Verkerk.
In his lecture, Dr. van de Goot will explain how tunnel vision constantly interferes in our daily lives and how if one is aware of the fact, its effects may be circumvented.
The impact of technologies on team performance in surgery
Prof Brigid Gillespie, Australia

In 2016, Prof Brigid Gillespie was appointed the inaugural conjoint Professor of Patient Safety in Nursing at the Gold Coast University Hospital and Griffith School of Nursing and Midwifery, Gold Coast campus. She has an extensive clinical background in operating room nursing and worked across the private and public sectors for many years before entering the tertiary sector. Prof Gillespie is Past President of the Perioperative Nurses’ Association of Queensland. In recognition of her service to operating room nursing as it concerns education and research, the Australian College of Perioperative Nurses (ACORN) awarded Prof Gillespie the 2014-16 Excellence in Perioperative Nursing Award. In 2017, she was awarded Life Membership to the Association. In terms of research, Prof Gillespie has expertise in quantitative and qualitative methodologies, clinical trials, systematic reviews, and knowledge translation. She is focussing on the following areas of patient safety; surgical wounds/dressing, pressure injury prevention, and non-technical skills in surgery. Prof Gillespie has authored over 140 peer-reviewed publications and five book chapters. She has won 7.6 million Australian Dollars in competitive research grants, including three NHMRC grants.

Evidence-based measures to prevent surgical infections
Annette Erichsen Andersson, RN, CNOR, PhD, Sweden
Annette Erichsen Andersson, RN, CNOR, PhD. In 2013 Andersson published a doctoral thesis “Patient Safety in the Operating Room – Focusing on Infection Control and Prevention”. Her scientific work has since then been directed towards different aspects of preventing postoperative infection as well as finding effective strategies to implement preventive measures in the OR. Andersson currently holds a position as a senior lecturer at the Institute of Health and Care Sciences at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg and as a research-leader at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Department of Orthopedics.