#AirwayHub is an innovative and multidisciplinary educational platform in airway management, which has grown from strength to strength since its inception in January 2017. #AirwayHub provides of well-executed regular teaching and training in an inclusive multidisciplinary arena allowing for reflection and discussion, with a special focus on clinical skills, teamwork and communication. Sessions are held monthly and are free to attend.
#AirwayHub sessions
Our pan-London region is home to numerous centres of excellence in head and neck anaesthesia, and the #AirwayHub program benefits from a world-class expert faculty, comprised of specialised clinicians who contribute to the program design and delivery. The monthly educational sessions are free and open to all. Typically the meeting begins with a set of practical skill stations followed by expert presentations. Case reports, morbidity and mortality discussions and quality improvement projects complement the theme of the session. Skills stations include video-laryngoscopy (now universally available in all anaesthetic rooms at UCLH) and fibreoptic intubation simulation. Scalpel cricothyroidotomy, and fibreoptic-guided intubation through a supraglottic airway device using an Aintree intubation catheter, as recommended by the Difficult Airway Society, are demonstrated at every session and are part of our department’s statutory and mandatory bi-annual training for consultant anaesthetists and anaethetists in training, physicians’ assistants, fellows and specialty doctors.
Free Open Access Medical Education (FOAM)
#AirwayHub meetings are announced through mailing lists and via all five London schools of anaesthesia. By embracing the ethos of Free Open Access Medical Education (FOAM, #FOAMed), which advocates ‘medical education for anyone, anywhere, anytime’, we strive to share and discuss the subject matter with other airway experts and enthusiasts who aren’t physically able to attend the meeting. Via our Twitter handle (@AirwayHub), and using our ‘hashtag’ (#AirwayHub), we provide ‘live’ updates for our worldwide followers, and broadcast the presentations via ‘Periscope’, achieving more than 200 views per broadcast.
Evaluation
With an average of 30 attendees each month, comprising anaesthetists, intensivists, operating department practitioners, paediatricians, critical care nurses, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and surgeons, #AirwayHub participants report that both the skills training and lectures have improved their knowledge and level of confidence in performing various airway techniques. The availability of a multidisciplinary expert faculty and the provision of a forum for learning and exchange have generated plentiful ideas for projects and innovative collaborations.
#AirwayHub has been particularly successful amongst anaesthetists in training. The informal sessions offer a rich learning environment in which to practice and hone their practical skills under the guidance of expert tutors. The learning objectives are matched to the RCoA syllabus and CPD matrix, and have been allocatedRCoA CPD points. The Airway Fellows at UCLH are heavily involved in the design, organisation and delivery of the program, developing their skills in education, leadership and management.
Current format
Since January 2018 we have been running a pan-London #AirwayHub with a ‘hub and spoke’ format based at UCLH (the ‘hub’) linked to external sites (the ‘spokes’), generating further networking and the exchange and sharing of best practice. The departments that kindly hosted #AirwayHub have been so far, Guy’s Hospital, The Royal London Hospital, St Georges Hospital, The Royal Marsden Hospital, and for 2019 we will be at Bart’s Hospital and Charing Cross Hospital.
#AirwayHub sessions have been approved for 2 CPD points by the Royal College of Anaesthetists.
To find out more about #AirwayHub, or if interested in organising a joint meeting in your department, follow us on Twitter @AirwayHub or contact Dr Emilie Hoogenboom, Consultant at UCLH.
Some examples of topics covered in #AirwayHub sessions
SKILLS
- Front of neck access – surgical and cannula
- Removal of surgical clips
- Awake fibreoptic intubation
- Fibreoptic-guided Intubation via supraglottic airway device using Aintree exchange catheter
- ORSIM bronchoscopy trainer
- Videolaryngoscopy
- Manual and automated jet ventilation
- Surgical straight-blade laryngoscopy
- Transnasal humidified rapid-insufflation ventilator exchange (THRIVE)
- Airway ultrasound
- Paediatric airway management
- Double-lumen tubes
- Bronchial blockers
- Tracheostomy change
- Suction-Assisted Laryngoscopy Airway Decontamination (SALAD)
PRESENTATIONS
- Difficult airway guidelines development
- Airway management of the critically ill patient
- Airway challenges in neuroanaesthesia
- Human factors in airway management
- Videolaryngoscopy
- 3 D Videolaryngoscopes
- Front of neck access and jet ventilation
- Optiflow/THRIVE
- Airway imaging and airway 3-D reconstruction
- Paediatric airways
- Difficult airways in thoracic anaesthesia
- Tracheostomy management.
- Perioperative journey of Head and Neck Patients
- Airway challenges in resource-challenged countries
- Case-based presentations
- Awake Videolaryngoscopy
- Airway Imaging
More information from the course organisers Emilie Hoogenboom and Pete Thomas.