An important, ground-breaking initiative is unfolding in the global critical care community in response to the H1N1 pandemic. While front-line health-care workers and infectious disease experts around the world are working round the clock to control, treat and prevent H1N1 infection, those who deal with the most severely ill patients — physicians working in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) — have joined forces to develop a more coordinated, long-term approach to H1N1.