Prof David Menon, MD, BS (Madras), MD (Madras), PhD (London), FRCA, FMedSci, FRCP, FFICM. Professor of Anaesthesia.
My research interests include neurocritical care, secondary brain injury, neuroinflammation, and metabolic imaging of acute brain injury. I have also published on the physiology of coma and the vegetative state, and on mechanisms of anaesthetic action in the brain. In recent years I have represented the UK intensive care community in discussions regarding the impact of evolving legislative changes on research in critical care and emergency medicine, and participated in national television and radio programs on research and ethical topics. Research in my group is supported by research funding from several sources, including the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Medical Research Council, the European Commission’s FP7 Program, the Royal College of Anaesthetists, the Evelyn Trust, and the Wellcome Foundation. I currently act as one of two Coordinators of the CENTER-TBI project, a €30 million European multicentre study of precision medicine and comparative effectiveness research in traumatic brain injury. My work has informed national policy development, most recently through Executive Editorship of the Report of an All Party Parliamentary Group on Acquired Brain Injury.
I am Head of the Division of Anaesthesia in the Department of Medicine, and my clinical work is in intensive care medicine. I was the first Director of the Neurosciences Critical Care Unit (NCCU) at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, where I established the first recognised training program for specialist neurocritical care in the UK. Protocols developed in the Addenbrooke’s NCCU have been shown to improve clinical outcome in severe head injury and rationalise the management of acute intracranial haemorrhage.
David appeared in the BBC documentary 'Between Life and Death', directed by Nick Holt and filmed over six months in the brain unit of Addenbrooke's NCCU. It respectfully follows the journeys of three patients who had been through the NCCU, including Richard, a man who was only able to communicate with his eyes following a spinal injury. 'Between Life and Death' won a BAFTA and an RTS Television Award for Best Single Documentary in 2011, and was listed on Louis Theroux's list of 'Documentaries That Made Me'. David wrote a blog article related to the program which can be read here. He works closely with Dr Emmanuel Stamatakis in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences.
