Abstracts 111/S19 the trachea past the soft tissues and potential obstruction from swelling, tumors, or vocal cords. Method: Consultant anaesthesia staff were to use the device following two or more failed attempts at intubation. Results: Over an 18-month period, there were 10 reports of failed intubation from seven consultants. Of these, eight intubations were successful on first attempt when the introducer was used. Notably, it was beneficial with an "anterior larynx," pharyngeal edema, one

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... tient with a laryngeal tumor, and for intubation of awake patients in the emergency department and intensive care unit. Conclusion: This simple, disposable device appears efficacious in unanticipated, difficult intubations. A follow-up randomized study is underway to assess its effect on the success rate of routine intubations by less experienced operators. Telemedicine and the Remote Assessment of Disasters For appropriate disaster relief to be mobilized, an early expert assessment is essential. The current approach includes the immediate dispatch of a team of academic experts. The limitations of this approach are that the required disciplines must be estimated correctly without information on the actual conditions, the depth of knowledge for assessment is limited to the expertise of the initial team, and the risks to the members of this team. The early stages of a disaster usually are associated with hazardous conditions and an austere environment for which academic experts usually are not ideally suited. i A remote assessment method will be described and demonstrated which involves deploying a team of data collectors with expertise in functioning within the disaster environment. These operators gather data, images, and video which are immediately transmissible over the INMARSAT satellite link to a home-base array of experts. Appropriate experts can interrogate the operational data collectors and direct the assessment from their remote location. Remote assessment technology enables a small team of field-experienced data collectors to act as the eyes and ears of a large and flexible group of experts without the costs and risks of deploying them. 029.