Dr Andrew Aquilina, MD MRCP FRCA EDA is a consultant anaesthetist and intensivist working in Mater Dei Hospital, Malta. He is also a visiting lecturer in the Department of Surgery at the University of Malta. Dr Aquilina trained in anaesthetics and intensive care in St Luke’s Hospital, Malta, and in Sheffield in the UK. He set up the national anaesthetic training programme and was appointed postgraduate training coordinator for anaesthetics and intensive care from 2008 to 2012. This lead to the successful reaccreditation of Malta as a European training centre for anaesthetists. Dr Aquilina has been working as a consultant in intensive care since 2006. He has been responsible for the introduction of numerous practice changes and guideline development. This included numerous improvements in the practice of sedation in intensive care patients.His main interests are in the teaching of difficult physiological and pharmacological concepts to trainees. Nothing gives him more satisfaction than watching a new group of trainees grapple with a new concept and understand it.