nextgen learning designed by our collaborative team
The strength of our vision lives in its collaborative and design-forward approach: one that brings together clinicians, educators, and artists to create a different kind of learning. One that draws on the power of the creative arts to inspire and tell stories, on the sciences to improve our clinical practice, and on the diverse perspectives of our combined experience to deepen our knowledge. To successfully meet the challenges of lifelong learning in our current environment requires that we transform the learning space in medical education into one focused on what we learn and how we learn. We believe that the learning we consume as clinicians should inspire us, that it should be a source of resilience and well-being, and that by making it so, we will be more compassionate and consummate clinicians who are more prepared to use that knowledge at the bedside.






















Jonathan St George MD – Creator & Director
If we want our airway skills to work in the real world, how we learn is as important as what we learn. My goal is to meet learners where they live and design education that gives you an honest look at our strengths and weaknesses as human beings and as clinicians so that we can transcend those limits. This is how the Protected Airway Collaborative came into being. It continues to evolve and grow through the efforts of an amazing team of dedicated educators. We all do this for one reason: we want you to be better than we were.

Kevin Ching MD
Dr. Kevin Ching is the Medical Director of the Weill Cornell Medicine NewYork-Presbyterian Simulation Center, and an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine. He is a co-founder and director of BASE Camp, an annual high-impact, simulation-based conference focused on training multiprofessional teams of international pediatric emergency medicine providers in the care of critically ill and injured children. As a physician and educator, his passion is in creating new and exciting medical education environments that challenge our conventions and transform the ways we teach, learn, and assess our students.

Ralph Slepian MD
Dr. Ralph Slepian is a Professor of Anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medical College and an Attending Anesthesiologist with the Department of Anesthesiology at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He is a dedicated educator and long-time faculty of the course.
Ralph Slepian MD

Jim Ducanto MD
Dr. Jim DuCanto is a tireless educator, innovator and friend to the Protected Airway Course. Who works tirelessly to improve what we do and how we do it.
Jim DuCanto MD – Creator of the SALAD Technique

Rohan Panchamia MD – director of the anatomically difficult learning space
Dr. Rohan Panchamia is a board-certified Anesthesiologist specializing in critical care medicine and transplant anesthesiology. He graduated from the Seven-Year Dual B.A./M.D. program at The George Washington University. Dr. Panchamia completed his anesthesia residency at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College. He then pursued a fellowship in critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. His clinical interests include critical care ultrasound, liver anesthesia, trauma anesthesia, advanced airway education, and resuscitative transesophageal echocardiography.
PAC Program Director of the Anatomically Difficult Airway

Sean T Runnels M.D.
Dr. Runnels is the founder, inventor, and driving force behind Through The Cords. He is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Utah. He was fellowship trained as a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist at Cambridge University in the UK and has extensive experience in difficult airway management in both high resource and low resource settings. In 2015, he returned to his practice at the University of Utah after a three-year sabbatical teaching in Africa. He spent one year in Guinea on the surgical hospital ship Africa Mercy, and two years as faculty at the National University of Rwanda. He is focused on decreasing the costs of and simplifying difficult airway management with the long term goal of increasing access to surgical care in developing countries.
PAC Faculty & Collaborator – Evolution of the Tube Introducer, Dynamic Tracheal Access

Miya Osaki
Miya Osaki is the chair of the Design For Social Innovation MFA program at School of Visual Arts.
Chair, MFA Design for Social Innovation

Sara Murphy DO – director of the PHYSIOLOGICALLY difficult airway learning space
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Sara Murphy DO – Director of the Physiologically Difficult Airway

Maria Lame md – director of the pediatric airway learning space
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Maria Lame MD – Director of the Pediatric Airway Installation

Timothy C. Clapper, PhD
Is the Director of Education, and Associate Professor of Teaching in Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine NewYork-Presbyterian Simulation Center. As an educator-researcher, he has reached across disciplines to develop and implement simulation-based instruction that has improved the performance of individuals, teams, and entire organizations. He is passionate about learning theories and the brain-based learning simulation framework, including understanding how learners can inquire, gather, process, and apply what they are learning. As a TeamSTEPPS® Master Trainer, he has implemented team-based training initiatives at healthcare institutionsworldwide and taught other leaders to do the same.

Wojciech “voy” piechowski
Wojciech Piechowski is a Physician Assistant for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, where he also serves as the Program Director of the Physician Assistant Residency. Passionate about education, Wojciech has been core faculty at the Protected Airway Collaborative (PAC) since its inception. He plays a crucial role in developing, planning, and producing educational content for the Airway Course and is in charge of audio production. Wojciech co-created the AIR-BOX, a simplified equipment storage unit for emergency airways, and authored a randomized simulation trial proving its effectiveness. He has recently led the incorporation of the PAC teaching style at the Transition to Residency course for Weill Cornell’s graduating medical students and at the national Clinical Updates in Emergency Medicine Conference for PAs and NPs. His professional interests include airway management, human factors in resuscitation, and equipment readiness for emergencies. He also enjoys playing guitar as well as recording and mixing sound, including a lot of the audio content you will hear during PAC.
Wojciech Piechowski PA – Director of the “Own the Head of the Bed” installation, Immersive Audio Director & AIR-BOX co-creator

Chris Root MD – DIRECTOR of the situationally difficult learning spaec
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Chris Root MD – Director of the Situationally Difficult Airway

Jess Boyle
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Emilio Del Busto – Paramedic supraglottic expert
I joined the PAC in 2016. I’m a NYC 911 paramedic and Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit paramedic for New York Prebyterian Hospital with over 15 years of EMS experience. I am passionate about airway and moving forward the PAC philosophy of OxygeNATION. One of my specialties is the effective use of Supraglottic Airways (SGAs) and how they can be used as the middle way with a difficult airway.
Emilio Del Busto – Faculty

niti Parikh
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