Non-Invasive Ventilation and Weaning

Mark Elliott MD FRCP (UK) is a Consultant Respiratory Physician, Department of Respiratory Medicine, St James's University Hospital, Leeds, UK. He has been responsible for developing the home sleep and assisted ventilation service, for acute in hospital NIV and weaning of patients with prolonged ventilator dependence. His research interests are in acute and chronic noninvasive ventilation and sleep related abnormalities of breathing.Stefano Nava MD is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Respiratory and Critical Care Unit, presso S. Orsola Malpghi Hospital in Bologna, Italy; it is one of Italy's largest hospitals. Dr. Nava has served both the ATS in its Critical Care Assembly as well as the European Respiratory Society in several capacities. He also sits on a joint task force between the ATS and ERS on noninvasive ventilation which aims to keep literature on the subject up to date. Dr. Nava has written more than 100 papers on the noninvasive ventilation. Born in Crema, Italy, Dr. Nava earned his degree in medicine at Pavia University, where he subsequently specialized in pulmonary disease, intensive care medicine, and anesthesiology. Between 1985 and 1988, he took a research fellowship in pulmonary medicine at Royal Victoria Hospital and the Meakins-Christie Laboratories, at McGill University in Canada. It was there, under the tutelage of the venerable professors Joseph Milic-Emili, Francois Bellemare, and the late Peter T. Macklem, that Dr. Nava studied respiratory mechanics and physiology-mainly in invasively ventilated patients.Bernd Schönhofer MD, PhD, is Director, Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Klinikum Region Hannover, Oststadt - Heidehaus, Hannover, Germany