Maurizio Cecconi

Maurizio Cecconi is a British-Italian anesthesiologist, intensivist, and academic. Cecconi's research focuses on improving the outcomes of high risk surgical patients, especially with better risk identification and perioperative haemodynamic optimisation, and improving the outcome of critically ill patients, especially suffering from cardiovascular shock, acute respiratory failure and sepsis. He has been Clinical Director of Adult Critical Care at St George's and the Clinical Lead for critical care at Epsom and St Helier's hospital from 2015 to 2016. Cecconi graduated from the University of Udine in 2002. He won a grant from the Italian Society of Anaesthesia, Analgesia and Intensive Care (SIAARTI) and became a visiting fellow at St George's Hospital. At St George, Cecconi studied perioperative haemodynamic optimisation of the high risk surgical patient. He studied the evaluation of novel techniques for measuring cardiac output in critically ill patients, and in 2007 he got his Doctor of Medicine from the University of London. Cecconi got a scholarship to study for a semester at the Autonomous University of Madrid in 2001. He completed his research studies with a research programme GCSRT at Harvard Medical School in 2015.

In 2008, Cecconi worked as a consultant for the NHS and became one of the youngest NHS consultants. and then became its Clinical Director in 2016.

In February 2018, and after 13 years in the UK, Cecconi returned to Italy to work for Humanitas.

In March 2020, the Lombardy region in Italy faced a severe strain on its medical system due to the rapid outbreak of COVID-19. On 5 March, Cecconi sent a letter with Pesenti, Grasselli and Kesecioglu to describe the first 10 days of the COVID19 outbreak in Italy and to tell colleagues around the world to "get ready". Cecconi spoke about the situation during a JAMA live stream interview on 13 March. The live stream reached 500,000 viewers. On 28 March he organised an 8-hour COVID-19 online marathon which connected thousands of clinicians worldwide to be updated about the virus, how to control its spread and how to treat infected patients.

In June 2020, Cecconi warned that lockdown restrictions might return in the event of a second wave of COVID-19. In an interview with the Guardian, he emphasized the need to "learn how to live" with the virus until a vaccine became widely available and expressed optimism about European health authorities' efforts to monitor the virus. Cecconi criticized the British government for not implementing lockdown measures sooner, pointing to the herd immunity strategy as a "dangerous approach."

In 2020, Cecconi was awarded the Knight of the Order of the Merit of the Italian Republic by president Sergio Mattarella for his service "to the community during the coronavirus emergency". During the same year, JAMA named Cecconi as one of the most influential doctors of the COVID-19 pandemic alongside other notable figures like Li Wenliang and Anthony Fauci. Cecconi emphasized the importance of collaboration and sharing of information among medical professionals to better prepare for future crises. During the time of his presidency over the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM), the organization won the Gastein Health Forum European Health Leadership Award in 2021. As of September 2023, he is the chair of Editorial and Publishing Committee at ESICM.

In June 2023, Cecconi co-wrote an opinion piece with Sirpa Pietikäinen for Lapin Kansa. They expressed their concerns regarding the recent studies showing over 70 percent of all antimicrobial drugs worldwide being given to animals that are raised for food consumption.