About ADEPT
The aim of the Airway Device Evaluation Project Team (ADEPT) is to establish a process by which the airway-management community within the profession could lead a process of formal device/equipment evaluation.
There is increasing number of airway management devices being introduced into clinical practice with little or no evidence of their clinical efficacy or safety. While there are several national and international regulations governing which products can come on to the market and be legitimately sold, there has hitherto been no formal professional guidance relating to how products should be selected (i.e. purchased).
ADEPT has formulated such advice, emphasising evidence based principles and defined a minimum level of evidence needed to make a pragmatic decision about the purchase or selection of an airway device.
ADEPT advises that this definition should form the basis of a professional standard, guiding those with responsibility for selecting airway devices. The full paper* describes how widespread adoption of this professional standard can act as a driver to create an infrastructure in which the required evidence can be obtained.
Pandit JJ, Popat MT, Cook TM, Wilkes AR, Groom P, Cooke H, Kapila A, O'Sullivan E.
Anaesthesia. 2011 Aug; 66(8):726-37. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2044.2011.06787.x. Epub 2011 Jun 24.
PMID: 21707562
Adept website will aim to provide the user with a list of airway management devices which are currently marketed in the UK and the evidence supporting its use in the clinical setting. The evidence includes all human and cadaveric trials conducted using the device. It excludes case reports, case series and manikin based studies. We hope that the ADEPT Website will enable the user to make a pragmatic decision about the purchase or selection of an airway device using evidence based principles. The onus will be on the manufacturers to provide us with evidence supporting the use of their devices. The researchers will analyse this objectively prior to it being placed on the website.
One important recommendation of ADEPT is that, when Trusts make their purchasing decision(s), they feedback to DAS to enable us to develop a database of decisions and the evidence upon which they were made. This will form a useful and growing resource for others faced with similar decisions.
We provide here the proforma which we ask you to use whenever you make your decision. Click to download
