ECMO in Australia: the national ecosystem of clinical services, registries, networks and educational resources

Australia has built one of the most sophisticated ECMO ecosystems in the world. Across the country, specialist ECMO centres, statewide retrieval networks, national registries, and clinical education platforms collectively support thousands of patients each year and advance the global evidence base for extracorporeal life support. This article maps the major components of the Australian ECMO landscape — the institutions, registries, professional bodies, and online resources that clinicians, health system planners, and ECMO teams rely on — and situates Lifemotion ECMO within that ecosystem as Australia and New Zealand's dedicated ECMO technology partner.

VECMOS: Victoria's statewide ECMO network

The Victorian ECMO Service (vecmos.org.au) represents one of Australia's most mature ECMO networks. VECMOS coordinates ECMO services across Victoria, supporting hub-and-spoke delivery of extracorporeal life support from tertiary referral centres to regional hospitals, and providing statewide retrieval capability for patients requiring ECMO transport. The VECMOS model — network coordination, shared governance, standardised protocols, and explicit retrieval pathways — is increasingly the benchmark for ECMO programme development across Australian states and territories.

ECMO.ICU: clinical education and decision support

The ecmo.icu platform is an open-access educational resource designed for ECMO clinicians at all levels. Covering circuit physiology, cannulation, troubleshooting, anticoagulation, and weaning, it represents the kind of point-of-care knowledge infrastructure that supports safe ECMO practice across geographically dispersed Australian teams. Resources like ecmo.icu reflect the investment Australian intensivists and perfusionists have made in raising ECMO literacy beyond the walls of major tertiary centres.

ANZICS and the ECMO Special Interest Group

The Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) provides the professional home for critical care physicians who manage ECMO patients across Australia. The ANZICS ECMO Special Interest Group brings together clinicians from both countries to share clinical experience, develop consensus guidance, and coordinate research. ANZICS also houses the CORE (Centre for Outcome and Resource Evaluation) registry infrastructure that underpins Australia's critical care data ecosystem.

The EXCEL Registry

The ECMO in Australia (EXCEL) registry — embedded within the ANZICS data collection framework — captures prospective, multi-centre ECMO outcome data from participating Australian centres. EXCEL has produced landmark Australian-specific data on ECMO outcomes, patient selection, and resource utilisation. It is one of the few national ECMO registries globally that integrates patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) into follow-up, building a uniquely patient-centred longitudinal dataset.

Major ECMO centres in Australia

ECMO is delivered at a network of specialist centres across Australia, including:

• Alfred Hospital, Melbourne — one of Australia's highest-volume ECMO centres, with expertise in both VV and VA ECMO, ECPR, and awake ECMO for lung transplant bridging
• Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney — major ECMO centre with established retrieval capability and post-ECMO follow-up services
• The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane — Queensland's leading cardiothoracic and ECMO centre, active in ECMO research and training
• Royal Adelaide Hospital — South Australia's principal ECMO centre, participating in national registries and research platforms
• Fiona Stanley Hospital, Perth — Western Australia's cardiac surgery and ECMO hub, including cardiac transplantation capability
• Westmead Hospital, Sydney — established adult ECMO service with cardiac surgery support
• Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne — Australia's leading paediatric ECMO centre, with neonatal, paediatric, and adolescent ECMO capability
• The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney — paediatric ECMO centre serving New South Wales
• Perth Children's Hospital — Western Australia's paediatric ECMO service
• John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle — regional ECMO capability with retrieval integration into NSW ECMO networks

ECMO retrieval networks in Australia

Retrieval medicine is foundational to Australian ECMO practice. Statewide critical care retrieval services — including Aeromedical Victoria, NSW Ambulance Aeromedical, QLD ISTAR, MedSTAR (SA), and RAH/FSH (WA) — carry ECMO capability for patient transport. Mobile ECMO retrieval, whether for cannulation at the referring site or transport of an already-cannulated patient, requires equipment that is portable, reliable, and battery-capable. Compact, integrated ECMO systems designed for transport — including the Lifemotion ECMO platform — are central to enabling safe retrieval across Australia's vast distances.

ELSO and Australia's global connections

Australian ECMO centres are active members of the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO), contributing data to the international ELSO Registry and participating in ELSO-affiliated education and quality improvement programs. Australia's ECMO outcomes data, benchmarked against international ELSO data, demonstrates consistently strong results at major Australian centres — a reflection of the investment in training, governance, and programme maturity across the network.

Research: the RECOMMEND trial and beyond

Australia is a leading contributor to global ECMO research. The RECOMMEND trial — a multi-arm platform trial designed to evaluate multiple management interventions in ECMO simultaneously — has active Australian recruiting centres. Earlier landmark trials including CESAR and EOLIA, and the ongoing VENT-AVOID study, have all involved Australian sites. Australia's relatively high ECMO volume per capita and its registry infrastructure position ANZ centres as globally important contributors to ECMO evidence generation.

Lifemotion ECMO in the Australian ecosystem

Within this ecosystem, OHM Healthcare is the exclusive Australian and New Zealand distributor of the Lifemotion ECMO system — an ARTG-listed, CE-marked extracorporeal life support platform engineered for the demands of modern ECMO practice: compact, integrated, battery-capable, and designed for both in-hospital and retrieval use. OHM Healthcare supports Australian ECMO programmes with equipment procurement, regulatory compliance, clinical training coordination, biomedical engineering support, and ongoing field service. Whether a new programme is establishing its first ECMO capability or an established centre is upgrading its fleet, OHM Healthcare is the dedicated local partner for Lifemotion technology across the region.

To learn more about the Lifemotion ECMO system and OHM Healthcare's support for Australian and New Zealand ECMO programmes — visit us.

lifemotionecmo.com.au  |  ohmhealthcare.com.au

For ECMO clinicians, programme directors, health system planners and biomedical engineers. Educational only — clinical decisions require specialist ECMO team input. External organisations and services referenced are independent of OHM Healthcare; links are provided for informational purposes.