Course Description
The SALAD technique has revolutionized airway management in contaminated airways by integrating large-bore suctioning with laryngoscopy to improve intubation success and patient outcomes. Developed by Dr. Jim DuCanto, this method reduces aspiration risk, enhances visualization, and increases first-pass intubation success. It is now widely adopted in prehospital, emergency, anesthesia, and critical care settings as an essential skill in managing airway contamination crises.
- Description: Suction Assisted Laryngoscopy Training Program
- Creator: Jim DuCanto MD, Jonathan St George MD,
- Includes: Online + Hands-On Curriculum
- Completion Time: 30-40 minutes
- Certificate available (with site subscription)
Training You Take With You
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.
One Curriculum, Endless Ways to Learn. The result is continuity—from online learning to hands-on practice to real-world performance.
✅ Access content and expert insights online
✅ Use it to build pop-up training stations
✅ Practice key skills with or without a coach
✅ Use it to teach or lead small groups
Meet the Creator
Dr. Jim DuCanto, master educator and creator of the SALAD technique, will teach you how to overcome one of the most feared challenges in airway management: massive airway contamination. When vomit, blood, or secretions are actively filling the oropharynx during the peri-intubation period, life sucks—literally and figuratively. Before you panic or abandon your video laryngoscope, learn how a well-designed rigid suction catheter, combined with a few key skills integrated into your laryngoscopy technique, can transform the situation. With the right tools and training, you can stay in control, maintain visualization, and achieve airway success—even in the messiest scenarios.
James DuCanto, MD, is an anaesthesiologist, master educator, and innovator dedicated to improving airway management. He invented the SALAD (Suction-Assisted Laryngoscopy and Airway Decontamination) simulator and the SSCOR DuCanto Catheter.
Start the Course: Visit the Posters
A Visual Gateway to Interactive Hands-On Learning
Begin With the Core Concepts
Revolutionize your approach to massive airway contamination with Jim DuCanto and the SALAD Technique. Start by understanding how large-bore suction, integrated skills, and high-fidelity trainers can elevate your practice.
Develop Your SALAD Skills
This space is designed for practice. Start in the digital space. Review the content, watch the videos, and study the steps.
Then step up, use our guided resources to get hands-on with the equipment, and begin developing durable, hands-on skills.
Set-Up Guide
Pop-Up Training Resources
Build Your Own Training Lab
Turn any space into a hands-on airway training zone. Grab our posters and your gear, and follow a few simple steps.
What’s Next
Congratulations on completing this learning space! You could stop here, but why would you want to? Look for more Situationally Difficult Airway (SDA) learning spaces and add another bundle of concepts, tools, and skills your airway tool box 🧰
The Collaborators
Jim Ducanto MD
Dr. Jim DuCanto is a tireless educator and innovator. This includes the invention of a specialized rigid suction catheter (the “SSCOR DuCanto Suction Catheter”), techniques for managing the massively soiled airway (the “SALAD Technique”), and a simulator designed to demonstrate and practice the SALAD technique (the Nasco Life/form® S.A.L.A.D. Simulator). SALAD Creator & Inventor
Chris Root MD
Chris Root is an emergency medicine attending and flight physician in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He first became passionate about airway management while working as a New York City paramedic for nearly a decade. His interests include prehospital airway management, airway management during cardiac arrest, team dynamics during resuscitation, and, most importantly, breakfast burritos.
Jess Boyle, BS, NRP, FP-C, CCP-C
Jess serves as a director of a suburban EMS service and Clinical Assistant Professor of Health Science at Stony Brook University with experience as a critical care paramedic in adult, pediatric, and neonatal patients, as well as a flight paramedic. He continues to educate physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, and other medical professionals for several large medical institutions in the New York metropolitan area.
Jonathan St. George MD
A physician educator and innovator. He is the director of the Protected Airway Collaborative and the creative force behind its uniquely immersive and interactive learning style. He has 15+ years of experience developing novel learning delivery systems in medical education and is an assistant professor in emergency medicine at Weill Cornell with extensive clinical experience in urban, rural, academic, community, international, virtual, and disaster response medicine.
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