M I N U T E S 3rd OXFORD REGION AIRWAY GROUP MEETING
Friday 21st April 2006 Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading
Chair: Dr Benham
Present: Dr Benham, Dr Popat, Dr Marfin Dr Goodwin, Dr J Lehane , Dr Rangasami, Dr Kapila, Dr S Scott, Dr Ramaswamy, Dr E Bone, Dr Chekairi, Dr Dravid, Dr Manji, Dr Iyer, Dr Kitching, Dr N Jones Apologies: Dr Pandit, Dr Warwick, Dr Maxwell, Dr Marfin, Dr C Kearns, Dr Bokhari, Dr Smithies, Dr I Davies, Dr Pradham, Dr C Frerk.
1. Introduction Dr Benham welcomed everyone to the meeting, and thanked Dr Kapila for organising and hosting the scientific meeting. The group particularly appreciated the very high quality speakers – Dr Tim Cook from Bath, Dr Marfin (Oxford), Dr Kitching and Mr Corbridge from Reading, as well as 4 trainees from the region presenting case histories on the Obstructed airway.
2. ORAG Research activities Dr Marfin reminded the group of his role to publicise and circulate airway research activity in the region. He mentioned 3 projects currently being performed. Double scope study looking at ‘hold up’ during fibreoptic intubation – lead investigator Dr A Marfin(Oxford). Comparison of 2 supraglottic airways – LMA unique v i-gel – lead investigator Dr S Scott(Oxford). Evalaution of new intubating device ‘Airtraq’ – lead investigator Dr M Ward(Oxford).
3. Oxford Regional Airway Website Dr Rangasami reminded the group that the website was now active. Indeed since the last meeting, we have even our own set of videos on the website, which appear in a paper in Anaesthesia. There was a useful discussion on how best to use the website. As a minimum, it should have details of ORAG – members, and meetings. Beyond that, it could become a useful educational resource with videos, and reviews of recent airway related research. It could also include a section on members involved with research in the region. It was thought that as this was an educational site, there would be no conflict in having Trust email addresses of it’s members posted on that. The site can now be visited at www.orag.co.uk/ Dr Chekairi volunteered to explore the possibility of posting recent airway articles in full on the site. Dr Marfin can furnish Dr Rangasami with details of research projects. The group discussed the possibility of an ‘airway chat room’ but at this stage, it was decided not to pursue that. Thanks to Dr Rangasami (Wexham Park Hospital) for his IT support and enthusiasm for the site. Dr Benham will email all those on the ORAG email group to see if they would be happy to have their emails included in the website.
4. ORAG courses updates
a. Dr Benham informed the group that there was an Oxford Difficult Airway Workshop on 9th March 2006. Interestingly, after recent courses where decreasing interest had been noted, numbers had increased again, and the feedback had been positive. It was run on the day before the ‘Training the Trainers’ Course, which worked well.
b. Dr Benham informed the group that a third ‘Training the Trainers’ in Airway Management course was held on 10th March 2006 and had been very well received with over 40 attendees from around the country. Dr Benham observed that from what the attendees were reporting, that Oxford region did appear to be well ahead of the game as regards addressing airway training for it’s trainees. All members of ORAG are welcome to come to these meetings as faculty. It is likely that the next one will be run in March 2007.
c. Dr Dravid (Kettering) and Dr Marfin(Oxford) reported that they were continuing to run the workshops for the Winter AAGBI meeting. Most faculty had been arranged, but if any members were interested in teaching to approach one of them.
d. There was some discussion about joint courses between anaesthetics and other specialities – notably ENT(see below) and Emergency Medicine. It was felt at this time, that there was no great desire to pursue developing a new course with the Emergency Physicians.
5. Any Other Business
a. There was a discussion about the development of ATMs in the DGHs. Already there is two in the region – Royal Berkshire Hospital and Northampton, with Wexham Park and Milton Keynes keen to pursue this. This subject had been discussed at the Speciality Training Committee, and Dr Popat and Dr Kapila suggested that it would be worthwhile having a generic ‘job description’ for the DGH ATM in Airway. Dr S Scott (Oxford) had provided a draft version of this, and this was much appreciated.
b. Dr Marfin alerted the group to the possibility of running airway workshops in China as part of educational ‘package’ with Trauma and Neurosurgical Educators. There could be a need for interested people to teach for 1 -2 weeks in China as part of this.
c. Partly following on from the ORAG educational meeting, and at the request of Mr Corbridge, the idea of a joint anaesthetic/ENT registrar training day was floated. Dr Manji(Milton Keynes) commented that he had been running a joint training day with his ENT surgeons locally. The group suggested Dr Manji ran with the idea using his template, and working with anaesthetists like Dr Scott (Oxford), Dr Kapila and Kitching (Royal Berkshire), together with ENT colleagues to run a regional joint meeting for ENT/anaesthetic trainees.
d. Dr Manji agreed to host the next ORAG meeting at MKGH with a provisional date of Tuesday 17th October 2006.
Dr S W Benham. 11th May 2006 stuart.benham@nda.ox.ac.uk