Rate My Professor Ross Kennedy

Clinical Associate Professor Ross Kennedy is affiliated with the Department of Anaesthesia in the Department of Surgery and Critical Care at the University of Otago, Christchurch. He holds the degrees of MB ChB and PhD from the University of Otago, as well as the FANZCA qualification. His research interests include modeling volatile anaesthetic uptake and distribution, effect-site volatile anaesthetic levels needed for various levels of surgical stimulus, nitrous oxide kinetic analysis, and the effect of depth of anaesthesia on long-term outcomes. Kennedy's work centers on pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic aspects of anaesthesia, encompassing volatile anaesthetic modelling, nitrous oxide kinetics, neuromuscular blocking drugs, and their impacts on surgical outcomes and recovery.

Kennedy has contributed to numerous peer-reviewed publications, such as Macgregor et al. (2026) 'Effect of ethnicity and parity on utilisation of labour epidural analgesia: A retrospective study' in Anaesthesia; Kennedy, McCombie, and French (2026) 'Maintaining lower fresh gas flows when using sevoflurane: An observational exploration of data from a single center' in Anesthesiology; Beard et al. (2024) 'Anesthesia delivery via manual control versus end-tidal control: A scoping review' in Trends in Anaesthesia & Critical Care; Sarraf, Kennedy, and Mandel (2024) 'Drug titration paradox: Comment' in Anesthesiology; and Kennedy (2023) 'Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic drug display and simulation systems in anesthesia practice' in Current Opinion in Anaesthesiology. He is involved in multiple ongoing projects, including quantifying the effect and variability of neuromuscular blocking drugs on surgical patients, retrospective audits of blood products in cardiac surgery, the BALANCED Study, IRORA – the Nerve Block Study, the Co-induction Study on low-dose intravenous premedication effects, the Sevoflurane Wakeup Study, the COCAD Study on cardiac output changes and sevoflurane delivery, the Peri-operative Analgesic Requirements and Quality of Recovery study, and the international METS and ISOS studies. These efforts advance precise anaesthesia management, low-flow techniques, patient recovery, and environmental sustainability in clinical practice.