Clinical Update - Difficult airways with Peter Fritz

Emergency Physician Dr Peter Fritz

This week on the show we are bringing you the first of several new and different episode format types to the TEL podcast feed. Every few weeks, we will release a version of the show called Clinical Updates. As the name suggests, the Clinical Update episodes will focus more on the core business of the emergency care. We hope that these episodes will provide a helpful addition to our clinical knowledge and skills in short and sharp discussions with emergency experts speaking on a range of topics related to your practice.

While we cannot deliver anything like the detailed content provided by your ED site educators, universities or colleges, this is not our goal. We do, however, hope that the content will provide useful and entertaining additional resources for emergency clinicians, clinical educators and postgraduate course coordinators.

To kick off the Clinical Updates we spoke to Fellow of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, Dr Peter Fritz about managing difficult airways. An Emergency Physician at Alfred Health ED in Victoria, Peter describes what good preparation looks like and how the team can minimise the risk of badness happening during every rapid sequence intubation. Peter is also a co-author of the Vortex Approach which is "a comprehensive array of resources to facilitate all phases of airway advanced airway care including airway assessment, development of an airway strategy and performance of airway interventions in both the routine and emergency setting". As with any useful cognitive tool, the 'magic' of the Vortex Approach lies in its simplicity, ease of use and no-nonsense effectiveness.

We hope you enjoy the new format and Peter's insights. And as always, let us know what you think and what you want us to cover in future episodes.