The Perfusion Downunder Winter Meeting (PDU) was established in 2005 to promote original prospective research into the effects of perfusion management on patient outcomes and so validate regional and international perfusion practices and interventions.

The result has been the creation of a meeting of scientific rigour that engages a faculty of excellence with objectives to share their specialist knowledge in a uniquely interactive format both to optimally benefit the delegate learning experience and to foster networking within the perfusion profession.

The idea of PDU as a perfusion-focused multidisciplinary symposium was conceived by Tim Willcox (perfusionist at the Green Lane cardiothoracic unit at Auckland City Hospital) in conjunction with Jill Futter and Wayne Pearson from Livanova Australia, formerly Cellplex Pty Ltd. An organising committee was formed with Prof Rob Baker and Michael McDonald and Berni Tackney was coopted as the meeting coordinator.

The PDU meeting has alternated annually between Australia and New Zealand and has remained “trade free” with excusive sponsorship from Cellplex/LivaNova since its inception.
 

In 2015 PDU was restructured and set up as an Incorporated Society under the Victorian Incorporations Act . This was to meet regulatory requirements creating an organization independent of the corporate sector and to formalize a committee of management.
Registration to the PDU meeting is capped at a maximum of 90 attendees to preserve the interaction of delegates and faculty both within and outside of the meeting room. Since 2005 the PDU meeting has resulted in some 80 publications in the Journal of Extracorporeal Technology.