High Acuity + Low Occurrence = HALO
What is the HALO Course?
Where Rare Events Become Trainable Skills
Some airway events are rare. When they happen, they are unforgiving.
Massive airway contamination. Massive hemoptysis. A Can’t Intubate, Can’t Oxygenate scenario. The bleeding tracheostomy. These are not everyday cases. But when they arrive, they demand clarity, decisive action, and technical precision under pressure.
We have brought together the most stressful, high-stakes airway scenarios into a single integrated HALO program, built to prepare you for infrequent yet defining events, delivered in the immersive, interactive style that defines The Protected Airway Collaborative. Inside, you will build a clear cognitive framework for threat recognition, threshold decisions, and crisis management. More importantly, you will rehearse the hands-on skills that matter through deliberate simulation, repetition, and expert coaching.
This is not passive learning. It is mental conditioning. It is technical rehearsal. It is preparation for the moment you hope never comes, but must be ready to command. Because when the rare event happens, you do not rise to the occasion. You fall to the level of your training.
Step Into the HALO Lab
A Training Experience Like No Other
Join a faculty of nationally recognized airway experts and simulation leaders for a one-of-a-kind HALO pop-up event in the heart of New York City in our amazing new training studio. Spend a full day in a purpose‑built, immersive environment dialing in the skills and mental models that matter most when physiology is failing and time is tight.
Course Format
- Full-day intensive
- Small-group, high-repetition format
- Rotating skill stations
- Scenario-based crisis simulations
- Real-time expert coaching
- Structured debrief and cognitive review
Procedures Covered
- Emergency Front-of-Neck Access (FONA)
- Massive Hemoptysis and Lung Isolation
- SALAD Technique for Massively Contaminated Airways
- Bleeding Tracheostomy & Tracheoinnominate Fistula Response
The HALO Course gives you a full day inside our beautiful Chelsea loft studio, transformed into an immersive, high-fidelity training environment built for the procedures that matter most when everything is on the line.
And because the environment matters, we’ve built a course day you’ll actually enjoy — engaging conversation, great food, strong local coffee, and the creative energy of our Chelsea studio.
Who Its For
- This course is for clinicians of all backgrounds and experience who want to perform at their best during critical airway moments.
What to Expect
Includes Free Premium Access to Our Website.
Intensive hands-on training in the highest-acuity, lowest-frequency procedures
Expert coaching and individualized feedback from master educators
Interactive drills and scenario reps that hard-wire clean, repeatable technique
Open Q&A sessions with leaders in airway, critical care, and emergency simulation
A collaborative, high-energy learning environment designed to elevate your practice
You’ll spend the day shoulder-to-shoulder with airway experts as you work through:
- Massive hemoptysis — strategies to maintain oxygenation when the chest is filling with blood
- Massive airway contamination and SALAD — mastering the choreography of suction + laryngoscopy
- Tracheostomy emergencies — rapid assessment, decisive action, and guided repetition
- FONA — performed with confidence, clarity, and expert coaching at your side
This is true hands-on immersion: one-on-one faculty coaching, deliberate reps, and immediate feedback. Every participant receives training guides, digital resources, and ongoing online access to support continued practice long after the course ends.
You’ll also work inside our signature pop-up training spaces, giving you a blueprint for bringing HALO-style accessible airway education back to your own institution.
If you’re ready to take your airway skillset to the next level — and prepare for the moments that can define a career — this is your day. Join us.
Location & Places to Stay
For those travelling out of town, the Airway Works Studio is in the heart of Chelsea. One of the best neighborhoods in NYC and a great place to explore during your stay. There are lots of hotels with a wide range of prices in the area. Here are a couple of reasonably priced options within walking distance of our studio.
SAVE YOUR SPOT TODAY
Space is Limited
days
hours minutes seconds
until
The HALO Program
Registration: $1295
CME Available
Cancellation Policy: Refunds are available up to 14 days before the event.
After 14 days, a credit can be used for future events.
Inquire here about trainee discounts
Course Outline
Faculty Bios
Jim DuCanto, MD – Anesthesiology
Creator of the SALAD Technique
Dr. Jim DuCanto is a tireless educator and innovator. He has collaborated worldwide with Emergency Medicine, Anesthesiology, Critical Care, and Prehospital and Retrieval Medical educators. Through his collaborations with colleagues in these diverse specialties, he has produced innovations related to Prehospital, Emergency Medicine and Critical Care airway management with the invention of a specialized rigid suction catheter (the “SSCOR DuCanto Suction Catheter”) as well as techniques to manage the massively soiled airway (the “SALAD” Technique), and a simulator to demonstrate and practice the SALAD technique (the Nasco Life/form® S.A.L.A.D. Simulator).
Brian Kaufman, MD – Critical Care
Faculty Lead for Tracheostomy Emergencies
Brian Kaufman, MD, is an intensivist with training in internal medicine, anesthesiology, and critical care medicine. He is a Professor of Medicine, Anesthesiology, and Neurosurgery at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. He has focused on simulation-based critical care education for the past 20 years and has served as a faculty member for difficult airway simulation for both the American College of Chest Physicians and SIMLEARN (the national VA simulation center in Orlando). He has developed and studied innovative methods to teach various groups of healthcare providers on how to evaluate and manage various life-threatening tracheostomy-related emergencies, including the use of a modular tracheostomy complication task trainer that he helped develop.
Richard Levitan, MD – Emergency Medicine
Cric & HALO Procedures Faculty Lead
Richard Levitan is an emergency physician and airway innovator whose career spans urban trauma centers and rural critical access hospitals. A member of the first Emergency Medicine residency class at Bellevue Hospital, he spent 25 years practicing in high-volume academic centers in New York City and Philadelphia before transitioning to rural practice in 2012. He now balances clinical work with national teaching, speaking, and device development.
Oscar Mitchell, MD – PCCM
Bronchoscopy & HALO Procedures Lead
Oscar MItchell is a Pulmonary and Critical Care attending at Penn Medicine and the Center for Resuscitation Science in Philadelphia. He is the creator the REVIVE course and passionate about improving patient care during cardiac arrest and in the peri-arrest period. He is currently exploring the best ways to deliver education on high-acuity, low-occurrence (HALO) procedures and immersing himself in in-situ simulation in the MICU. His educational conference, REVIVE, focuses on resuscitation, cardiac arrest, and post-arrest care.
Jonathan St George, MD – Emergency Medicine
Founder & Executive Director
Jonathan St. George, MD, is the founder of The Protected Airway Collaborative and an emergency physician dedicated to transforming how clinicians learn airway management. His career spans urban academic centers, rural hospitals, disaster response, and international medicine, experiences that shape his vision for innovative, practice-driven education. Through PAC, he combines immersive simulation, digital platforms, and creative design to create learning spaces where clinicians at every level can refine skills, stay inspired, and deliver safer care. His mission is to turn the complex into the engaging, and the critical into the unforgettable—improving patient outcomes worldwide.
You must be logged in to post a comment.