Skip to main content

About CCR

What we are

Critical Care Reviews is an evidence dissemination platform. Updated daily, our website is the most current critical care website in the world.

What we do

We share critical care science, keeping clinicians informed of the latest developments in the field.

How we do it

We review the literature daily, collating the most important articles. These are added to the website, creating a single repository of the most important landmark trials, open access guidelines and narrative reviews.

Via our meetings and ad hoc livestreams, we also host results presentations of major international trials.

Through our podcast, book and blog, we discuss the implications of the latest trials.

Our story

The first iteration, Critical Care Knowledge, started in 2008, as a means of sharing important papers in critical care.

In 2009, it was rebranded and relaunched as Critical Care Reviews. Over the next 15 years, CCR has grown into one of the most respected critical care educational platforms in the world.

Today, the CCR platform spans a website, weekly newsletter, two meetings, podcast, ad hoc livestreams and annual book. It is used by tens of thousands, benefitting the patients they care for.

The meetings, in Belfast and Melbourne, are widely considered to be the best critical care meetings globally. Our most recent meeting, CCR Down Under, was viewed in over 90 countries.

Our Vision

Why we do it

We believe scientific advances in medicine should benefit everyone. However, it can only benefit patients if their clinicians are aware of the knowledge and they apply it. We work towards sharing science and making it as accessible as possible.

How we fund our work

After a decade of growth, the ever increasing time committment to maintain our resources forced us to become professional or reduce our workload. We now have one fulltime employee, managing the various operations of the platform, as well as the Belfast meeting. To fund this, we charge clinicians in high- and high-middle income countries to receive the weekly newsletter. Those in lower income countries receive it for free. Everything else on the platform is free, including the livestream of our meetings.

CCR Supporter

If you are in a high income country, you can support our work directly, and the work of your colleagues around the world indirectly, via a one time donation or a regular newsletter subscription. You can help for as little as the price of a cup of coffee

Critical Care Reviews

Sharing Science

We believe the latest medical advances should be available to all, so we developed the leading critical care evidence dissemination platform, keeping clinicians everywhere up-to-date for free.

Join us in Titanic Belfast to discuss the best critical care trials in the world. June 11th to 13th, 2025

Meetings

Held in Belfast in June and Melbourne in December, the Critical Care Reviews Meeting hosts first results presentations of major trial results, often with simultaneous publication in the major journals

Newsletter

The best critical care literature published over the past seven days, collated and freely emailed to thousands of users every week

Livestream

Held on an ad hoc basis, we host and freely livestream major trial results, usually in conjunction with a simultaneous publication in a major journal

Podcast

The Critical Care Reviews Podcast discusses major trials with their chief investigator as well as following up on questions from livestreams

Pair of binoculars

Journal Watch

Few people have the time to stay up-to-date with the literature. Updated daily, we watch the major journals so you don't have to

Book

The annual Critical Care Reviews Book summaries, critiques and puts into context the best critical care trials of the year

Paper of the day icon - colourful calendar

Paper of the Day

Join us to read 1 paper per day and stay up-to-date as we cover the spectrum of critical care across 2025

Blog

The Critical Care Reviews Blog delves deep into major randomised controlled trials to explore why the trial returned the result it did

Hot Guidelines Icon - Lightening Bolt

Hot Guidelines

Guidelines are a great synthesis of the latest evidence in a single field. We have hundreds of high quality open access guidelines

Hot Trials Icon - Flame

Hot Trials

Every year, we gather the most important critical care trials published over that 12 month period, and put them all in one place

Major Trials Icon - 2 Groups

Major Trials

We collate and categorise all the major critical care trials by physiological system. If you need to know what major trials exist, we have them listed.

Website

The Critical Care Reviews website houses all our resources. Check out the various tabs on the menu for more details on our content


Critical Care Reviews Team


Rob Mac Sweeney

Founder

Rob started Critical Care Reviews in 2009 to freely share the latest scientific advances in the field of intensive care medicine. During the day, he is a fulltime intensivist at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is an Honary Professor of Practice at Queen's University Belfast,

Emma Mac Sweeney

Director of Operations

Emma started in Spring 2022 as the first Director of Operations for Critical Care Reviews. She manages the financial and logistical activities of this continually growing organisation. She is Critical Care Reviews' first employee.

Belfast Meeting Team


Rob Mac Sweeney

Founder

Rob started Critical Care Reviews in 2009 to freely share the latest scientific advances in the field of intensive care medicine. During the day, he is a fulltime intensivist at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is an Honary Professor of Practice at Queen's University Belfast,

Chris Nutt

Director

Chris works across the platform, driving progress in the growth and direction of the organisation. He is a fulltime intensivist and anaesthetist at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.

Catriona Kelly

Meeting Lead

Catriona leads the organisation of the annual meeting, and specialises in the putting toegther a diverse and engaging social programme. She is a fulltime neurointensivist and neuroanaesthetist in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin.

Phil Gillen

Director

Phil is a key component in the success of both the meeting and livestream, taking on unseen roles to ensure their smooth operation. He is also a fulltime intensivist and anaesthetist at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, as well as the lead for the adult critical care transfer service for Northern Ireland.

Emma Mac Sweeney

Director of Operations

Emma started in Spring 2022 as the first Director of Operations for Critical Care Reviews. She manages the financial and logistical activities of this continually growing organisation. She is Critical Care Reviews' first employee.

Bronwen Connolly

Bronwen is a Professor of Critical Care at Queen's University Belfast and leads the MARCH trial, investigating mucolytics in criticallly ill patients. She

Rowan Grieves

Melbourne Meeting Team


CCR Down Under is run in association with The Alfred Intensive Care Academic Centre, with AV support from Manta Communications, Melbourne.

Previous Contributors


Jakub Fronczek

Jakub Fronczek

Visual Abstracts Lead

Kuba is our first team member from outside Northern Ireland. He leads on visual abstracts and our new instagram account. He is an anaesthesiology & critical care trainee in Cracow, Poland, and an Editorial Fellow at the British Journal of Anaesthesia.

Toby Betteridge

Contributor to the Narrative Reviews Collection

Toby is a Specialist in Intensive Care and Anaesthesia in Christchurch, New Zealand. He has been the ANZICS CTG committee member for New Zealand since 2021 and was previously on the board of the ANZICF. His research interests include neurocritical care, optimisation of organ flow and its measurement, mechanical ventilation, and the impact of right ventricular dysfunction on ICU outcome.

Michael Behal

Michael Behal

Contributor to the Narrative Reviews Collection

Michael is the Post-Doctoral Academic Fellow at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy in Lexington, KY, and a pharmacist practicing in the medical intensive care unit at University of Kentucky Healthcare.

Sarah Corbett

Sarah Corbett

Contributor to the Guidelines Collection

Sarah is a consultant anaesthetist from Galway, Ireland, and is currently working in an echo fellowship in Wellington, New Zealand.

Rosalyn Chi

Contributor to the Narrative Reviews Collection

Rosalyn is an emergency medicine physician from New Jersey who is now training as a critical care fellow at Indiana University, USA.

Toni Riveros

Toni Riveros

Contributor to the Critical Care Reviews Book

Toni Riveros is an EM-CCM trained intensivist based out of the Chicagoland area. Her clinical areas of interest are communication between patients, their advocates and providers, and improving workflow and team dynamics during in-hospital cardiac arrests. Originally from Los Angeles, California, she now actually enjoys the temperamental weather of the Midwest.

Enrique Ortiz-Diaz

Enrique Ortiz-Diaz

Enrique is a practicing Pulmonary, Critical Care, Neurocritical Care Physician born & bred in Puerto Rico, and living in Houston, Texas, USA. He is an amateur historian, guitarist, Star Wars Fanboy and father to 2 wonderful children.
Anestis Karakatsanis

Anestis Karakatsanis

Contributor to the Narrative Reviews Collection

Anestis was born and raised in Greece, where he completed residency in General Surgery and later a Critical Care fellowship. He has been practising as an Consultant in Critical Care for the last 4.5 years. His interests include resuscitation, acute surgical critical care and trauma, and mechanical ventilation. Anestis is ardent supporter of free open access medical education. 

Varun Shetty

Varun U. Shetty

Contributor to Blog & Book

Varun is an adult intensivist at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), Hamot Hospital, Erie.  Varun’s focus is on healthcare disparities in critical care and care of the critically ill in global health settings. He is interested in developing sustainable systems that will consistently provide high-quality care to critically ill patients anywhere. 

Carmen López Soto

After completing Anaesthetic training in Spain in 2011, Carmen moved to the UK to further her neurocritical care experience. After fellowships in both anaesthesia and critical care at Addenbrooke´s Hospital, King´s College Hospital, and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, she moved to Toronto where she completed a fellowship in Critical Care at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center. When not at work, Carmen can be found practising crossfit, planning a trip abroad, at the cinema or theatre, or sometimes chilling with a book.
Jonathan Ball

Jonathan Ball

Contributor to the Book & Blog

Jonathan is currently based in Auckland, New Zealand, doing full time ICU.  He spent over 15 years as a General and Neuro ICU consultant in south London, where he trained, to return to Australasia, where he had previously completed 18-months of post training fellowships.  His clinical and research interests cover a broad range of topics from pathophysiology to palliative care.

Patrick Eckert

Patrick Eckert

Contributor to the Narrative Reviews Collection

Patrick is an attending physician in Emergency Medicine and Critical Care at Christiana Care Health
System in Wilmington, Delaware USA. He works primarily in the medical ICU and is active in resident
education and critical care ultrasound.

Shakti Mishra

Contributor to the Book & Blog

Dr Shakti Bedanta Mishra is a Professor in the Department of Critical Care Medicine at IMS and SUM. 

Rohit Patnaik

Contributor to the Book & Blog

Dr Rohit Patnaik is an Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Care Medicine at IMS and SUM. His areas of interest are POCUS and Mechanical Ventilation.

Dr Sagarika Panda

Dr Sagarika Panda is an Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Care Medicine at IMS and SUM. His areas of interest are nosocomial infections and Septic Shock.

Rupali Patnaik

Contributor to the Book & Blog

Dr Rupali Patnaik is an Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Care Medicine at IMS and SUM. Her areas of interest are ARDS and RRT in ICU.

Biswajit Nayak

Contributor to the Book & Blog

Dr Biswajit Nayak is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Critical Care Medicine at IMS and SUM. His areas of interest are quality improvement in ICU.

Abhilash Dash

Contributor to the Book & Blog

Dr Abhilash Dash is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Critical Care Medicine at IMS and SUM. His areas of interest are ECMO and CRRT.

Samir Samal

Contributor to the Book & Blog

Dr Samir Samal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Care Medicine at IMS and SUM. His areas of interest are nosocomial infections.

Dr Rafael Wabl

Rafael Wabl

Contributor to Neuro Collections

Rafael Wabl is a neurologist and neuro-critical care-trained intensivist working in a mixed medical and surgical ICU in the Seattle area. He loves running, reading fiction, and escaping into the mountains

Marcelina Czok

Contributor to Visual Abstracts
Marcelina is an anaesthesiology and intensive care trainee from Poland who works part-time in an emergency department. She has a keen interest in extracorporeal life support techniques. When she’s not working, Marcelina enjoys traveling and hiking. Her love for the outdoors and her passion for medicine come together in her pursuit of mountain medicine as a side medical hobby.
Zbigniew Putowski

Zbigniew Putowski

Contributor to Visual Abstracts
Zbigniew is a junior academic anaesthesiologist from Southern Poland who supports the production of Visual Abstracts. He loves tennis and mountain views.