Anaesthesiology is the practice of medicine dedicated to the relief of pain, medical management, anaesthesia, safety, and care of the surgical patient before, during and after surgery. Anaesthetists play a pivotal role in resuscitating acutely unwell patients, including trauma victims, with advanced life support and help to manage patients suffering from acute or chronic pain. They also provide pain relief for women during labour and delivery. Each year at Queen Mary Hospital (QMH), the Department of Anaesthesiology administers more than 10,000 anaesthetics, delivers care to more than 4,000 pain patients, and provides obstetric services for 5,000 deliveries. 

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Professor Michael Irwin graduated with an MB ChB from the University of Glasgow in 1985 and was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Anaesthetists in 1991. He joined The University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 1992, working at The Duchess of Kent Children’s Hospital (DKCH) and subsequently QMH.

He has over 30 years of experience in all aspects of anaesthesia, intensive care and pain management, and is Head and Clinical Professor at the Department of Anaesthesiology at HKU. He specialises in anaesthesia and
perioperative care at QMH, where he provides clinical services as an Honorary Consultant Anaesthetist. He also serves as the Chief of Service in Anaesthesiology at QMH, DKCH and Gleneagles Hong Kong Hospital. He was the inaugural Chief of Service at The University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital in Mainland China.

Professor Irwin’s clinical and research interests include total intravenous anaesthesia, pharmacology, acute pain management, perioperative medicine and the care of high-risk surgical patients. His laboratory work includes the use of opioids and propofol in attenuating organ damage and ischaemia/reperfusion injury. He is on the Faculty of Evidence Based Perioperative Medicine and is helping to develop this field in Hong Kong with symposia and educational programmes.  

Previously he served as President of both the Society of Anaesthetists of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong College of Anaesthesiology. He has received honorary fellowships from the Australia and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and the College of Anaesthetists of Ireland in 2009 and 2014 respectively. In 2017, he was invited as the Mary Burnell Lecturer by the Australia and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and delivered the Ernest Henry Starling Lecture at the Evidence Based Perioperative Medicine Congress, London.

In addition to his academic work, Professor Irwin is on an advisory board on sedation safety of the US Food and Drug Administration and has delivered hundreds of lectures, presentations and workshops at both local and international conferences. He has supervised 16 past or current postgraduate students. He holds Honorary Professor appointments at Peking Union Medical College and Anhui Medical University, and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and Baylor College Texas.

He has published over 270 articles in peer reviewed scientific journals, 12 books and book chapters, and is regularly invited as a journal reviewer. He is an Editor of the journals Anaesthesia and Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy, Associate Editor of Perioperative Medicine, and Senior Editor of the Hong Kong Medical Journal among others.

Professor Irwin has also taught widely around Asia and China. In 2016, he was Chairman of the Organising Committee for the prestigious quadrennial World Congress of Anaesthesia, generating an income of US$1.8 million to assist anaesthesia care in less economically developed environments. In 2000 he helped establish and still sits on the board of the Children’s Surgical Centre, Phnom Penh, which provides free surgical care and medical training to Cambodians.