Associate Clinical Professor
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of California Irvine
Orange, CA

Dr Andy Mason was born in Huddersfield, UK and graduated from St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, part of the University of London. He had already embarked on a career in orthopaedic surgery when the arrival of his son, soon to be followed by triplet daughters, caused him to re-think his chosen speciality. In 1974, he transferred to family medicine and joined a group practice near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, UK. This was at a time before paramedic training had been introduced into the UK, when the only providers of advanced pre-hospital medical care were local groups of volunteer physicians. With his experience in orthopaedic surgery, Dr Mason joined his local volunteer group, the Suffolk Accident Rescue Service (SARS). He was involved in the introduction of paramedic training into East Anglia and still provides regular medical support for paramedics at incident scenes. With a long-standing interest in medical photography, he has built

up an extensive library of images to assist with pre-hospital trauma training. Dr Mason has been a member of Suffolk Accident Rescue Service since 1974, serving as its Chairman between 1997 and 2000. He is also a member of the British Association for Immediate Care (BASICS), the national organisation for Immediate Care schemes in the UK, and has received the BASICS national photographic award on four occasions.

In the late 1970s, Dr Mason was a pioneer of community-based defibrillation in the UK. From 1987 to 1997 he was lecturer in cardiology on the paramedic training programme of the East Anglian Ambulance Service, and is the author of a textbook of electrocardiography for paramedics. Dr Mason’s main interest is in the management of the difficult trauma airway and he has pioneered the pre-hospital use of the Laryngeal Mask Airway (LMA) and Intubating Laryngeal Mask Airway (ILMA or LMA-Fastrach) in trauma care. Using the ILMA, he has developed a technique to permit tracheal intubation in trapped patients who are breathing spontaneously, without the need for neuromuscular blockade.

Dr Mason lectures widely in the UK and, in 2002, was appointed Medical Adviser in Pre-hospital Care to Intavent Orthofix Ltd, the distributor of the LMA in the UK. Together with a colleague, he is currently developing a training apparatus to permit demonstration of a wide range of intubation techniques, including those of ILMA-guided tracheal intubation and naso-tracheal intubation in spontaneously breathing patients. He is the author of two textbooks and numerous scientific papers on a variety of topics in Immediate Care medicine.

Michael Ramsay was born in Dublin, Ireland and graduated from the London Hospital Medical College, London University. Dr. Ramsay has held the position of Chief of Service for the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas since 1989. He also serves that facility as Co-Medical Director of Operating Room Services and is a member of the medical center's Board of Trustees. Additionally, he is President of the Baylor Research Institute. As such, Dr. Ramsay oversees an organization that provides cohesive and coordinated research efforts for eight Baylor Health Care System medical centers. Plus, he serves as the Associate Editor of Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, a quarterly Baylor research journal. Dr. Ramsay has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and 9 (nine) chapters in texts. He is also the author of the Ramsay Sedation Scale, a measurement designed for interpreting the depth of sedation for patients in the critical care unit. He is currently involved in a number of clinical research projects in which he is the principle investigator and has made more than 45 research abstract presentations worldwide. He is a renowned and sought after lecturer throughout North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Finally, he is a Clinical Professor with the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and a Clinical Professor for the Department of Periodontics at Baylor College of Dentistry.

As a practicing anesthesiologist, Dr. Ramsay's provides anesthesia services in areas that include major organ transplantation (including liver, heart, kidney, and lung), as well as cardiothoracic, vascular, urological, plastic, and neurological procedures. Additionally, he is well respected for his work in neonatal and pediatric anesthesia.