Rinaldo’s role in the medical emergency team and rapid response systems

In the 1990s, there was emerging evidence that patients admitted to hospitals frequently suffered in-hospital cardiac arrest, unplanned admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), and potentially preventable in-hospital death. These events were often preceded by objective signs of instability and suboptimal recognition and response by hospital ward staff. Rinaldo Bellomo collaborated with key Australian and international leaders to develop a novel and paradigm-shifting model of care referred to as the medical emergency team (MET). This team is comprised of senior staff members who are experts in the assessment and management of acutely deteriorating patients.

In Australia and New Zealand, staff members from the ICU are frequently the team leaders for the MET. The team is called when a patient develops objective signs of clinical deterioration, prior to the onset of cardiac arrest. Rinaldo led, mentored, and supervised a systematic and structured research program that evaluated the nature and effectiveness of the MET at Austin Health and throughout Australia. This commenced with single-centre before-and-after studies and progressed to the first Australian ICU cluster-randomised controlled trial. His unique skillset was pivotal in the emergence and promulgation of this model of care worldwide resulting in countless lives saved from preventable morbidity and mortality.