The co-inventor of Resus SCRAM™ (Structured CRitical Airway Management) bag has told his worldwide podcast audience of its ‘game-changing’ benefits for emergency intubation

Emergency Department Intensivist Dr Scott Weingart – whose EMCrit podcast has been downloaded 40 million times and is well-known in the emergency anaesthesia community – collaborated on the expansion of the successful SCRAM™ emergency airway management portfolio in 2022.

Dr Weingart was closely involved in the development of Resus SCRAM™ – working alongside original SCRAM™ co-inventor and Glasgow-based helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) paramedic Paul Swinton as well as InnoScot Health.

The episode, entitled FoundStab Intubation SOP, heard Dr Weingart – who has fellowships in Trauma, Surgical Critical Care and Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) – pinpointing Resus SCRAM™ among standard operating procedures (SOPs) as a leading approach to organising equipment for immediate accessibility in time-critical situations.

Discussing his role in helping to design the Resus SCRAM™ bag, he told how he had collaborated on the “game-changing system” in order to “specifically address this”.

He said: “All equipment for intubation and failed airway management should be stored in an immediately accessible and ready to use system.

“I have gone to Emergency Departments (EDs) and Critical Care Units (CCUs) where everything is just in a jumbled box or cart that is randomly restocked, and everything is in random places, and you have to go on a shopping expedition before you intubate a patient.”

Dr Weingart said Resus SCRAM™ comes into its own when patients arrive “with no prenotification at all” allowing the ability to go from nothing to intubating with rapidity, meaning everything is set up and is as easy to use a system as possible.”

He added: “The dump kit I designed has everything ready to go for an intubation so that you can just open the bag, put it down on the table and you are good, and then you do all the restocking – the shopping trip expedition after the intubation to restock the bag.

“What you can’t have is just some random tackle box that’s stocked by your people in the ED where, ‘Oh, it doesn't look like there’s enough endotracheal (ET) tubes, so I’ll throw in a random assortment.’”

Dr Weingart insisted it was vital that “for every single intubation, every item that you would want” is immediately to hand.

Upon the bag’s announcement, he said that it was “the way I wanted airway to be managed, Paul was kind enough to work with me to develop a SCRAM™ Resus bag – a bag for the resuscitationists in the hospital.

“What this really did was just accomplish everything I needed in front of me for airway management. Instead of having to stock in order to set up to do the intubation, you’re doing your set up after the intubation – that’s really the key.”

The innovative Resus SCRAM™ offers key features including:

• A stencilled kit dump which standardises layout and allows efficient pre-stocking
• A secondary, removable, “difficult airway” kit dump and removable trach pouch
• New mechanism for the storage of bougies
• Auditing options of unique barcode, checklist pocket and RFID/NFC pocket
• The Fidlock system on the front of the bag is compatible with CRASH Rx™, designed to contain drugs for emergency anaesthesia
• Lockable zips compatible with tamperproof seals

Paul said: “SCRAM™ continues to enhance the performance of airway management by focusing on process improvement through cutting-edge design.

“Systemisation, standardisation, cognitive offloading, human factors, and good governance are at the core of its success amid increased cognitive demands placed on individuals, teams, the environment, and the associated risks of error and time to intervention.

“With Resus SCRAM™, I believe that my own knowledge, in conjunction with that of Scott and InnoScot Health, has made for a strong addition to the portfolio.

“It particularly excels as an emergency airway bag designed for institutions and systems that offer video laryngoscopy as a primary modality of emergency airway management – an exciting feature.”

Head of Project Management at InnoScot Health, Gillian Henderson said: “We are delighted to see the SCRAM™ portfolio continuing to go from strength to strength.

“We have such a long-standing relationship with Paul, which has contributed to a uniquely collaborative, supportive way of working.

“Resus SCRAM™ represents a truly progressive addition to the portfolio’s well-established success story, and having such a knowledgeable, high-profile supporter in Scott continues to open up fresh opportunities on a global basis which is great for all involved.”

The SCRAM™ Bag was first developed alongside InnoScot Health, then manufactured and distributed by Openhouse Products Ltd for pre-hospital emergency airway management and tracheal intubation, reducing error, time to intervention, and cognitive load.

Co-inventor of SCRAM™, Paul Swinton did his MSc in Trauma Sciences through Queen Mary University of London.

SCRAM™ is now being used by high performance teams in both hospital and pre-hospital environments in the UK and internationally to enhance the performance of emergency airway management across the spectrum of age.

For SCRAM™ enquiries outside of the UK, Openhouse can direct customers to the distributor covering their country/region.