Perioperative Profiles, a popular monthly series on TopMedTalk in which we speak with the giants of perioperative medicine. This month Kate Leslie speaks with Denny Levett, Professor in Perioperative Medicine and Critical Care at the University of Southampton and a Consultant in Perioperative Medicine at Southampton University Hospital NHS Foundation trust (UHS).

She discusses her roles in Southampton in perioperative medicine and adult intensive care, and as director of the UK Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC).

Denny recounts growing up in Rye, East Sussex, studying medicine at Cambridge, and how a transformative ICU post (just after the Soho pub bombing) led her into anaesthesia as a route to critical care.

Then, with mentorship from TopMedTalk's founder, Monty Mythen, co-led the Extreme Everest project, which informed her PhD and later work using cardiopulmonary exercise testing to predict surgical outcomes and develop prehabilitation; she also reflects on balancing a clinical-academic career with family life.