Get ready for another inspiring interview with one of the leading figures in intensive care medicine, Prof. Jean-Louis Vincent — a clinician–scientist whose career has been shaped by the challenge, immediacy, and life-saving impact of caring for critically ill patients.

From the start, he combined clinical practice with research, embracing the full spectrum of intensive care rather than focusing on a single niche. His involvement across bedside care, laboratory research, business activities, and administrative roles has defined his truly multimodal career.

A major milestone in his career was his key involvement in redefining sepsis-related organ dysfunction, contributing to the development of the SOFA Score during his ESICM presidency. Looking to the future, Prof. Vincent sees SOFA evolving in an era of automated data extraction and AI-enhanced decision-making.

As the founder of the ISICEM meeting in Brussels since 1980, he shares insights into its evolution and explains what makes it unique: experts are invited as individuals rather than being assigned predefined topics, fostering authenticity, diversity, and the emergence of new talent. While guidelines offer structure, he emphasises that conferences like ISICEM remain essential for exchanging real-world experience and practical wisdom.

What keeps him motivated? Intensive care medicine is, in his words, “the most interesting, challenging, and intellectually stimulating field of medicine.”