DAS Executive Update

EXECUTIVE UPDATE

| Ravi Bhagrath | Imran Ahmad | Fauzia Mir |

Happy New Year! Looking back over the past year it has been challenging in many aspects. We have all worked hard in extremely difficult circumstances during the pandemic and are now faced with the aftermath of the very unusual and tough conditions. The NHS is facing a very challenging winter and our teams as always are at the forefront, helping our patients in these exceptionally difficult times.

After nearly three years we have had a face to face Annual Scientific meeting in Newcastle. With over 700 delegates attending, this meeting was a huge success. It was a pleasure to see old friends, colleagues and new members joining the airway fraternity. From the retired members to our youngest attendee who was 3 months old, everyone was excited to be there, attending lectures, workshops and the social gatherings. We had delegates from all over the world including Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, Canada, USA, Singapore and all over Europe. The DAS Macewen medal was presented to Professor Ellen O'Sullivan and Professor Cyprian Mendonca was announced as the DAS professor of the year at the ASM. Our new website planning is progressing and the designated team are working tirelessly to make it user friendly, professional and comprehensive. The education team are already planning and forging ahead with new ideas for the webinars and educational activities for the new year.

Standardising the Airway fellowships across UK is the next big planned activity by the DAS education team and is currently underway with surveys and a collection of databases.

The DAS Alert card database is progressing very well and an analysis of the data from first five years was published in Anaesthesia this year. This has been very well received and has initiated discussion on the role of Alert cards for ensuring patient safety and acting as a means of communication between clinicians across the country regarding care of the patients. While it was another challenging year financially, plans are being made to ensure financial stability for DAS in the coming years.

The Birmingham ASM planning in 2023 is progressing very well and expressions of interest for the 2024 meeting have been invited, the results of which will be announced soon. Updates on guidelines continue with continued progress being made on the DAS intubation and extubation guidelines.

We are also working with the OAA and APA on updates to both paediatric and obstetric airway guidelines. The DAS Human Factors guidelines will be launched in January with some very exciting and interesting content for all. The team led by Fiona Kelly has worked hard to complete these in the challenging few years during the pandemic.

We look forward to what this new year holds for DAS and a special welcome to all the new members joining the DAS in these exciting times. Getting involved and collaboration makes our society not only bigger but also at the forefront in education, research and patient care.

Imran Ahmad, DAS President

Ravi Bhagrath, DAS Secretary

Fauzia Mir, DAS Treasurer