posted June 04, 2020

by Dave Olvera

The facilitation of advanced airway management in the prehospital setting is a critical technique for patient care. Historically, the modalities and techniques have changed in prehospital transport. Included in these updates is the advancement of intubation devices and enhanced cognitive offload tools.

Earlier this week, I wrote an article for AirMed & Rescue that discusses those updates and examines the importance of prehospital care. It includes information about preparation; intubation locations; the rapid sequence intubation (RSI) checklist; and implementing a quality dashboard or metric to evaluate internal airway management.

The goal of ongoing research and investigation highlights the importance of improving first-pass success rates through basic instruction. Included in these instructional practices should be knowledge of diverse intubation devices along with appropriate use of checklist utilization. These practices will improve first-pass success. To further determine needs and successes, individual programs can be combined into the larger GAMUT to compare and contrast data. Simplistic in form yet powerful in output, successful first-pass intubation practices save lives.

Read the entire article here.

David Olvera is a nationally registered paramedic, Certified Flight Paramedic, and Certified Medical Transport Executive, serving as Director of Clinical Research and Department Chair for the research committee for Air Methods. He serves on the International Board of Flight and Critical Care Paramedics as well as the MedEvac Foundation International. He is the Vice-President of Research at FlightBridgeED, a Veteran Combat Medic in the U.S. Army, and has published multiple abstracts and papers related to pre-hospital airway management, resuscitation, and advancing air medical transport research.