Skip to content

Flexible Scope Intubation

NextGen Learning To Elevate Your Airway Practice


Overview

Flexible scope skills for the age of VL

Developed by our PAC design team, this integrated learning space covers all the critical concepts, skills, and tools you need to deploy fiberoptic techniques into your clinical practice. Our experts will teach you when and how to use fiberoptic in real-world care and share all the tricks of the trade they rely on in their practice. Self-guided training labs and faculty coaches in our physical spaces complete the training.

Meet the Director

Professional headshot of a man with gray hair, smiling, wearing a dark suit and a light blue shirt with a patterned tie.
Ralph Slepian MD

Dr. Ralph Slepian is one of the world’s experts in fiberoptic intubation for difficult airways. He 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 also a dedicated airway educator.

An Integrated System

To Build Durable Skills

PAC is an integrated learning system, not a single course. Our digital content supports multiple learning styles, on your schedule with the goal of building durable skills.

The result is continuity—from online learning, to hands-on practice, to real-world performance. PAC gives you the tools, structure, and flexibility required for next-generation airway training.

What’s Inside

Learning Objectives

A list of concepts related to fiberoptic intubation (FOI) in airway management, including history, indications, awake intubation, and planning aspects.
Text listing skills related to flexible fiberoptic intubation (FOI), including hand movements, endotracheal intubation, awake FOI with sedation, and using FOI as a rescue device.
Infographic titled 'Fiberoptic Learning Space' focusing on FOI skills for video laryngoscopy with sections on core concepts, guided practice, hands-on stations, expert coaching, and skills challenges.
Introduction to FOI

The fiber-optic device predates the video laryngoscope and is considered the gold standard for intubation. Enter here to find out why.

Infographic titled 'Indications for Fiberoptic' detailing the use of fiberoptic intubation, including contraindications and scenarios for its application as a rescue device. Features a medical professional demonstrating the technique in a clinical setting.
Flexible scopes in the age of VL

In the age of the video laryngoscope, is FOI still relevant, and if so, when should you use it? Enter here and find out.

Infographic on mastering fiberoptic intubation, featuring a healthcare professional demonstrating essential movements and gestures.
Flexible scope basics

FOI requires a different skill set from laryngoscopy. Learn the essential skills & gestures to master this device.

An instructional infographic on fiberoptic intubation procedures, detailing preparation steps, hand positioning, and key actions with labeled illustrations.

To begin your skills training, use this step-by-step guide for fiberoptic intubation, from prepping the device to delivering the tube.

Promotional graphic for a training on fiberoptic intubation, emphasizing its use when oropharynx access is not possible, with a message that more information is coming soon.
The nasotracheal APPROACH

Unlike laryngoscopy, the nasotracheal approach is an option. Use this step-by-step guide to begin your skills training for this procedure.

Illustrative guide to rapid sequence topicalization for awake fiberoptic intubation, featuring labeled elements such as midazolam, lidocaine solutions, oral airway, and an atomizer, alongside a diagram of the human airway anatomy.
rapid sequence topicalization

When RSI creates too much risk in a patient who needs a definitive airway, the key to success is rapidly and effectively topicalizing and sedating the patient for an “awake” intubation procedure. Let us show you how here.

Illustration explaining the fiberoptic assist technique for airway management with a supraglottic airway.

You were unable to intubate, but your supraglottic rescue device is working. Here’s how a fiberoptic device can be a great rescue device and help in a challenging situation.

A medical professional demonstrates the use of fiberoptic-assisted video laryngoscopy (FAVL) for airway management, showing two devices side by side on a screen with an image of a throat. The setup includes a video laryngoscope and fiberoptic bronchoscope.

You were unable to intubate, but your supraglottic rescue device is working. Here’s how a Fiberoptic device can be a great rescue device and help in a challenging situation.

Informational graphic about using an exchange catheter for safely replacing a supraglottic airway with a fiberoptic device.

Here’s how a simple device can add safety to your fiberoptic tube exchange.


🎧 Deep Cuts

For Premium Subscribers

You’ve got the basics down—great work! To keep learning, head to the next poster. If you’re a subscriber, click below to continue the journey on this topic.

Click Here for Deeper Cuts

To see this premium content

Click Here & Subscribe Now

We’re a scrappy insurgency of airway educators (no venture capital, no corporate machine), just a dedicated team on a mission to make airway training better. You can sign up for free for full access, or for less than $9 a month, you can help us grow. Your support fuels the creation of immersive, interactive digital and hands-on training tools that are accessible to everyone. This isn’t about paywalls for profit — it’s about powering real-world, high-impact education.
Subscribe. Unlock killer content. Power the movement.

 


Meet the Creators

Each learning space takes a collaborative and design-forward approach. We draw 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. Each unique creation has one goal: to elevate your emergency airway practice.

A smiling middle-aged man in a suit and tie, with short gray hair, against a gray background.
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.

A man smiling in a formal outfit with a suit and tie, taken outdoors with a blurred background of greenery.
Rohan Panchamia MD

Rohan Panchamia MD is an Anesthesiologist & Critical Care physician with an interest in difficult airway and ultrasound. He is the Director of the Anatomically Difficult Airway learning space at PAC.

A man with a beard speaking with raised hands, wearing a black shirt, in front of a blue tiled background.
JOnathan St George MD

Jonathan St. George MD is an Emergency Physician. He is the creator and director of the Protected Airway Collaborative.

Leave a Reply