Dr David Cain

Dr David Cain is a consultant in Critical Care Medicine, Anaesthesia and is a Transfer Consultant for the  the Retrieve Critical Care transfer service. He is the Deptuy Director and Peninsula Lead for the South West Critical Care Network (SWCCN), chairs the SWCCN transfer group and is a Subject Matter Expert for Electronic Patient Record implementation.  Prior to this he was a Critical Care and Anaesthesia consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, London. He is actively involved with Clinical Research and Teaching. He has previously been Clinical Governance Lead, Paediatric Critical Care Lead, Organ Donation Lead and Morbidity plus Mortality Leads. He attended the University of Edinburgh Medical School between 1998 – 2003 and later the University College London where he completed his MD(res) in 2017. His postgraduate medical training was with the North Central plus Imperial schools of anaesthesia and Pan-London critical care training.

David’s clinical interests include Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine (Adult & Paediatric) with broad expertise across critical care, perioperative medicine, and anaesthesia for a wide range of surgical procedures. His clinical practice includes the management of critically ill adults and children, with a focus on sepsis, ARDS, the deteriorating patient, and advanced resuscitation. He is skilled in procedures such as bronchoscopy, tracheostomy insertion, central and arterial access, and focused intensive care echocardiography (FICE). Dr Cain also has specialist experience in transfer medicine and paediatric critical care, ensuring safe patient transfers between hospitals. Alongside his clinical work, Dr Cain is committed to improving quality of care through active roles in infection control, clinical governance, and morbidity and mortality review. He has a strong interest in end-of-life care, organ donation, and perioperative optimisation, as well as acute pain management. His work in digital medicine and clinical informatics supports the effective use of electronic patient records and innovation in care delivery. He is also involved in clinical research, education and service development across both adult and paediatric intensive care.

Dr Cain is currently a lead investigator for the PEACH service evaluation of critical care bed utilisation within South West England. He is currently the Chief Investigator for a studies concerning paediatric bronchitis and COVID-19 and difficult airway management within Critical Care. He reviews articles for the UK Journal of Intensive Care Society and the British Journal of Anaesthesia.

Dr Cain is involved with teaching medical student, junior doctors, critical care practitioners, pharmacists and critical care nurses. He has a formal qualification in teaching from the Academy of Medical Educators. He has overseen the development of a critical care transfer course for the South West Critical Care Network and was previously a faculty member plus facilitator for an end of life communication course at University College Hospital. He is a mentor for echocardiography teaching (FICE). He has written modules for the UCL Perioperative Medicine MSc.

Dr Cain is the lead author for five peer-reviewed publications and is the co-author for seven more. He has presented at eight international meetings and multiple national meetings.

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Dr David Cain is a subject matter expert for the implementation of Royal Cornwall Hospital‘s new Electronic Patient Record and has held roles of Clinical Lead for both Clinical Governance Infection Control and Morbidity plus Mortality. His governance roles have involved handling complaints on behalf of the Critical Care department. He has been a facilitator for After Action Review Courses and contributed to Patient Safety Incidence Review Framework investigations. He also enjoys his role as Clinical Supervisor to medical trainees and as Chief Investigator for clinical studies. He has attended several management training courses, including the Care Redesign Management Training Course at St Thomas’ hospital and The Royal Marsden Management training course.

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