UNDERSTANDING AIRWAYS [31 mins, 54 secs]

Dr Keith Greenland gives an important and enlightening talk on understanding airway anatomy and airway devices. Watch this before any airway lecture or hands-on session to challenge previous dogma and reinforce effective airway strategies.

Experimenting on a Rural Doctor with KingVision Videolaryngoscope

It’s well known that there is no finer experimental test subject than a half mad rural doctor. Here a good mate and I play around with the KingVision VL, some lignocaine and a nebuliser. You will be glad to know that the test subject was not euthanased at the end of this experiment…

 AFFORDABLE DIFFICULT AIRWAY EQUIPMENT [6 mins, 41 secs]

In 2012 I surveyed rural GP-Anaesthetists in Australia, specifically asking about their access to and experience with difficult airway equipment. There are ANZCA Professional Standards (PS56) and recognised difficult airway algorithms – and accordingly one would expect rural doctors to have access to appropriate equipment to manage such a problem, especially in light of the lack of immediate specialist support. Sadly results suggested that many rural doctors lacked access to the appropriate kit. You can read the paper here. This video outlines affordable yet robust equipment to manage routine and difficult airways and should be regarded as achievable wherever airways are managed. How does YOUR hospital measure up?

RECIPES FROM DISASTER

I reckon it was Dr Karim Brohi of trauma.org who inspired me to get involved in preventative trauma care rather than be ‘the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff’. Here is a simple trauma prevention (and wildlife conservation) plan from Kangaroo Island, SA

IMPROVING PREHOSPITAL CARE IN RURAL AUSTRALIA – TIME TO BORROW FROM OVERSEAS MODELS?

Have a look in the RERN section for details of South Australia’s Rural Emergency responder Network. Like the UK’s BASICS and NZ’s PRIME prehospital schemes, this relies upon appropriately skilled doctors to respond and backup ambulance services before the retrieval team arrives. Rural doctors, particularly those with airway skills, would be well-placed to do this, but current arrangements are ad hoc and need formalising. Having a national network of rural doctors may also serve Australia well in case of National or State disaster eg: earthquake, tsunami, bushfire, major incident etc.

AWAKE INTUBATION WITH THE KING VISION VIDEOLARYNGOSCOPE

Proving again that there is no finer experimental animal than the robust rural doctor, Dr James Doube demonstrates the KingVision VL – on himself!

RURAL DOCTORS AND ACCESS TO DIFFICULT AIRWAY EQUIPMENT

A 2012 survey of rural GP anaesthetists in Australia suggested that many did not have the necessary equipment to manage a difficult airway – surprising in light of existing difficult airway algorithms and ANZCA Professional Standards (PS56). Here is the presentation for ACRRM’s RMA2012 conference

EMERGING DEVELOPMENTS IN MONITORING TECHNOLOGY

This episode from BBC’s Horizon is called ‘Monitor Me’. Presenter Kevin Fong (with whom was fellow intern at University College/Middlesex some years ago) narrates skilfully through the exciting new ways in which medical monitoring is evolving and how this can allow disease prevention through behaviour change and earlier diagnosis. Excellent stuff, especially for those interested in primary prevention and critical care.