Anita Suvaganam

Anita Sugavanam, MBBS, BSC( Hons), MRCP, FRCA is currently a Locum Consultant anaesthetist at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. Her clinical duties include provision of anaesthesia for high risk patients undergoing major hepatopancreaticobiliary (HPB, including transplant), vascular, general and renal surgery. Her main clinical interests lie in point-of-care testing (especially in the context of massive haemorrhage), enhanced recovery (ERP) and pre-optimization.

Her non-clinical interests are in research and education (both within the NHS and in resource-poor settings). Her research group at the Royal Free Hospital have carried out clinical observational studies looking at coagulation abnormalities in patients undergoing hepatectomy. She has also been involved in several ERP programmes and introduced intrathecal morphine as an alternative to thoracic epidurals in major HPB surgery.

From an education perspective, she is interested in human factors and is currently completing a PG certification in Medical Education. She is also an APLS and ALS instructor and regularly facilitates simulation sessions for both medical students and junior doctors. She has directed anaesthesia novice courses in the UK, facilitated paediatric and obstetric anaesthesia courses in Uganda and worked at the Black Lion Hospital in Ethiopia.

Anita believes strongly in anaesthetists as the leading perioperative physicians, and places a high value on being an easy-going, approachable colleague. She loves skiing (having grown up in Austria), and says she is slightly addicted to travelling and experimenting in the kitchen, which her husband dutifully tolerates!