Meet the Speakers

Dani Hall (@danihalltweets) is a PEM consultant in Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin. She also moonlights as a senior lecturer in the joint Don’t Forget The Bubbles (DFTB) and Queen Mary University of London PEM MSc. She’ll be the first to admit she’s learning a lot from her students. 

In a bizarre turn of events, Dani ended up as an Executive Director of DFTB, where she’s mostly just trying to keep up with all the amazing work her friends and colleagues do. She’s also the clinical lead for the HSE Rainbow Badge initiative at Children’s Health Ireland and CHI simulation lead, which she somehow juggles between sips of coffee. 

Join Dani as she works her way through a discussion of the top PEM papers, making sense of it all (hopefully). After all, who needs to be an authority when you can just have fun learning? 

Lawrence completed a Professional Diploma in Teaching and Learning in UCD in 2015. He was the NAS lead working in conjunction with the NIU, HPSC and NVRL in developing procedures for the transportation patients of ebola virus disease. In 2018, NAS commenced a pilot programme in partnership with Beaumont Hospital to develop the Pathfinder Service. He was the NAS lead for Pathfinder until his retirement in 2019. He has continued to support and assist the National Ambulance Service during its expansion of the Pathfinder Programme to eight further partnerships throughout the country. 

Married with two children, both working in the Service; he is a lifelong Aston Villa fan. He is involved in his local CFR group, spins in the local gym most mornings, loves jigsaws and is working on his piano grade 6. 

Dr. Freddy Lippert is serving as the Chair of the European Emergency Medical Services Leadership (EMS Europe) and holding the position of International Chief Medical Officer at Falck, a global healthcare company. As a founding member of the European EMS Leadership, the European EMS congresses, and the Global Resuscitation Alliance, Dr. Lippert has dedicated over 25 years to the field of emergency healthcare. He has been instrumental in the reformation of emergency healthcare in Copenhagen, including the development of a state-of-the-art integrated dispatch solution for emergency patient care. In that period, Denmark has implemented a citizen’s first responder program, and experienced a fourfold increase in survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.

Dr. Lippert, who has published more than 200 scientific publications, has a keen interest in innovation, technology, and implementation and he emphasizes that “It takes a system to save a life.”

Bernard Gloster took up the post of Chief Executive Officer of the HSE in March 2023. He has worked in health and social services for over 34 years, and rejoined the HSE from the state Child and Family Agency Tusla where he served as Chief Executive Officer from September 2019. Prior to that he held several senior management positions within the HSE including Chief Officer of HSE Mid West Community Healthcare, and he worked in and managed in both community and acute hospital operations. He is a social care worker by profession, holds an MBA from Oxford Brookes University and an MSc in Management Practice from UCC.

Dr Cian McDermott graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2002. He completed higher specialist training in Emergency Medicine in Ireland in 2012. He is fellowship-trained in Emergency Medicine in Australia where he also specialised in point of care ultrasound. He was appointed as a Consultant in Emergency Medicine in the Mater Hospital, Dublin in 2017 where he is also the Director of Emergency Ultrasound Education. He is an Associate Clinical Professor with University College Dublin, School of Medicine. 

He is accredited in comprehensive transthoracic echocardiography with the European Society of Cardiovascular Imaging. He is the Emergency Medicine representative to the Joint Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine of Ireland ultrasound committee. He sits on the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Ultrasound Education & Curriculum Development Committee.

Dr David Menzies is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine at St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin. He is the Clinical Lead of the HSE National Ambulance Service’s Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance Service (MICAS) and is also the Clinical Lead for the Central Trauma Network with the HSE National Office for Trauma Services. 

Dr Menzies has a sub specialty interest in Pre Hospital Emergency Medicine, Critical Care and Retrieval. He is the National Ambulance Service Area Medical Advisor for North Leinster. Between 2013-2016, he was Clinical Lead for Emergency Medical Science at the UCD Centre for Emergency Medical Science. He is a volunteer with Wicklow Rapid Response, a declared asset to the National Ambulance Service, which responds to c.150 high acuity emergencies annually in the pre hospital environment, providing Pre Hospital Critical Care. 

He is also a founder and former Trustee, Board Member and Medical Director of CFR Ireland, a national registered charity for Community First Responders. Dr Menzies is a Rescue Team member and Medical Director with the Dublin & Wicklow Mountain Rescue Team. He is a founder member and current secretary of Irish Society for Pre Hospital Emergency Medicine (iPHEM), the professional society for advancement of research, training and education in Pre Hospital Emergency Medicine. 

Ger, a qualified Paramedic, has served with the National Ambulance Service (NAS) since 2005. After 14 years’ service working on an emergency ambulance and at the Southern Region Ambulance Control Centre, he was promoted to the grade of Community Engagement Officer in July 2019 with responsibility for the North Leinster area, developing and supporting Community First Responder Volunteers & Groups. 

Since November 2020, Ger has held a new role within the NAS of Community Engagement Manager with responsibility for the Community Engagement Team and working collaboratively with all stakeholders on the implementation of the Out Of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy for Ireland.