Highlights Given the prevalence and severity of illness associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)–related acute respiratory failure, it is very likely that community hospitals will need to transfer such patients to regional centers capable of providing advanced care, such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support. The critical care transport team must be familiar with transporting these patients in the prone position because this position has been shown to improve oxygenation in COVID-19–positive patients with respiratory failure. Critical care transport teams must be familiar with advanced modes of ventilation, such as airway pressure release ventilation, and blood gas interpretation in order to optimize safety during the transport of COVID-19–positive patients with respiratory failure. Decontamination procedures must be followed closely, even if this results in prolonged downtime for the transport team, in order to ensure both crew and subsequent patient safety.

Background Medical learners may use YouTube® videos to prepare for procedures. Videos are convenient and readily available, but without any uploading standards, their accuracy and quality for education are uncertain. We assessed the quality of emergency cricothyrotomy videos on YouTube through an expert panel of surgeons with objective quality metrics. Methods A YouTube® search for “emergency cricothyrotomy” was performed and results were filtered to remove animations and lectures. The 4 most-viewed videos were sent to a panel of trauma surgeons for evaluation. An educational quality (EQ) score was generated for each video based on its ability to explain the procedure indications, orient the viewer to the patient, provide accurate narration, provide clear views of procedure, identify relevant instrumentation and anatomy, and explain critical maneuvers. Reviewers were also asked if safety concerns were present and encouraged to give feedback in a free-response field. Results Four surgical attendings completed the survey. The median EQ score was 6 on a 7-point scale (95% CI [6, 6]). All but one of the individual parameters had a median EQ score of 6 (95% CI: indications [3, 7], orientation [5, 7], narration [6, 7], clarity [6, 7], instruments [6, 7], anatomy [6, 6], critical maneuvers [5, 6]). Safety received a lower EQ score (5.5, 95% CI [2, 6]). Conclusions The most-viewed cricothyrotomy videos were rated positively by surgical attendings. Still, it is necessary to know if medical learners can distinguish high from low quality videos. If not, this suggests a need for surgical societies to create high-quality videos that can be reliably and efficiently accessed on YouTube®.

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