Resuscitation Science Symposium 2025

Gavin Perkins, MBE, FMedSci, FERC, is Professor of Critical Care Medicine and Dean of Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick. For more than three decades, he has been at the forefront of resuscitation science, combining academic leadership with clinical practice in the West Midlands region of the UK.

Internationally recognised for his contributions to resuscitation research, Professor Perkins established the PARAMEDIC group and led multi-centre trials evaluating mechanical chest compression devices, adrenaline, and intraosseous vascular access. He has secured over £20 million in research funding and published more than 450 peer-reviewed papers, including landmark contributions to NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, and BMJ.

Professor Perkins has played a defining role in global resuscitation guidelines. As past Chair of the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) Guidelines Committee, he led development of the 2021 ERC Guidelines. He is President of Resuscitation Council UK, Director of Research for the ERC, and a longstanding leader within the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation. He co-led international consensus work on the Utstein template for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest reporting and as well as the Core Outcome Set for Cardiac Arrest (COSCA) trials, both of which have enhanced the comparability, quality, and patient-centredness of resuscitation research. His contributions also include transforming Advanced Life Support training through blended learning, establishing the UK OHCA Outcomes Registry as well as shaping national CPR and defibrillation policy.

A dedicated mentor, Professor Perkins has supervised over 20 PhD students and championed diversity across international resuscitation organisations. His work spans every link in the chain of survival, with enduring global impact on science, education, and patient outcomes.

Joan Mellor has held leadership roles in healthcare, philanthropy, and community service, uniting partners across sectors to create lasting impact. Throughout her career she has been dedicated to improving health outcomes and strengthening systems of care.

Most recently as a consultant, Joan helped nonprofits and healthcare organizations in strategic planning, grantseeking and grants management for initiatives to expand resuscitation efforts, community paramedicine programs for at-risk pregnant women, and chronic disease management. Previously, she served as Director of Market Development at Health Scholars, advancing virtual reality training for resuscitation and emergency care and as Director of External Affairs at Allina Health EMS in the greater Twin Cities area of Minnesota.

During her 18 years with the Medtronic Foundation, Joan led global philanthropic programs advancing cardiac and emergency care, managing over $25 million in grants and launching initiatives to strengthen community response systems for sudden cardiac arrest worldwide.

Currently, Joan serves in pastoral ministry and community support at the churches of St. Michael & St. Mary in Stillwater, Minnesota, where she lives with her husband, Jim.

CanROC is nation-wide consortium comprised of research staff, clinical scientists, and medical responders. The network is broken down into multiple sites across Canada, with each site organizing research and patient care improvement efforts locally.

Beyond the site level, CanROC’s governance is guided by several committees, each with an individual mandate that contributes to the achievement of CanROC’s overall strategic goals. Our standing committees include the Cardiac Arrest, Steering, Pediatric, Training and Early Career Research Support, and more.

CanROC projects include The Cardiac Arrest Registry, which captures data for every out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patient within the CanROC catchment area for review and study.