DATE: Tuesday, 22nd September 2026
TIME: 8:00am - 12:00pm 
VENUE: Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC)
ROOM: Room to be confirmed closer to the conference via the Program 
REGISTRATION FEE: $170 
HOSTED BY: MyMedEquip 

DESCRIPTION:

Explosive weapons and drone-delivered munitions are reshaping the pattern of battlefield injuries, with a significant rise in maxillofacial trauma and airway compromise that challenges traditional approaches to airway management. Recent data from the Russia–Ukraine war show that blast mechanisms now account for over 85% of war-related maxillofacial injuries, dramatically increasing the likelihood of distorted anatomy, heavy bleeding, and complex “can’t intubate, can’t oxygenate/ventilate” (CICO) scenarios in both military and civilian tactical environments. Historical data from conflicts such as Vietnam suggested upper airway injuries were relatively uncommon (around 0.7% of evacuated casualties), but contemporary weapon systems and improvised explosive devices have shifted the burden of injury towards devastating facial and neck trauma that more frequently demands advanced and surgical airway interventions. At the same time, emerging evidence indicates that manual bag-mask ventilation is frequently performed dangerously or inadequately by prehospital providers, with ineffective seal, excessive tidal volumes, and poor rate control contributing to hypoxia and gastric insufflation in up to 90–95% of observed cases in some simulation-based studies.

This workshop uses the Vortex approach as a unifying cognitive framework to help tactical clinicians recognize and manage rapidly deteriorating airways under fire, with a focus on three domains: high-quality manual ventilation, video laryngoscopy (including SALAD for massively contaminated airways), and decisive transition to CICO and surgical airways when non-surgical options fail. Participants will explore how modern injury patterns driven by drones, IEDs, and high-energy blast mechanisms are increasing the frequency and complexity of battlefield airway problems, and will translate current combat and TECC/TCCC guidelines into practical, reproducible skills that can be deployed in austere and high-threat environments.

WORKSHOP TARGET AUDIENCE

• Military medics, combat first responders, and advanced medical assistants in deployed or high-threat environments.
• Tactical law enforcement medical officers, TEMS providers, and specialist police medics.
• Prehospital clinicians (paramedics, CCPs, retrieval physicians, EM/ICU registrars) operating with tactical teams or in blast-risk regions.
• Educators and clinical leads responsible for airway guidelines, training programs, and equipment procurement in defence, police, and tactical EMS organisations.

DATE: Tuesday, 22nd September 2026
TIME: 8:00am - 5:00PM

VENUE: Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC)
ROOM: Room to be confirmed closer to the conference via the Program 
REGISTRATION FEE: $350
HOSTED BY: Committee For Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (CTECC)

DESCRIPTION:

The Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC) guidelines represent a set of evidenced-based best practices for the immediate medical management of wounded in all prehospital high-risk scenarios. TECC is not tactical medicine; instead, it is intended for situations with on-going threat to the provider and patient. TECC balances the on-going threats, civilian scope of practice, population, medical equipment, and the variable response resources in civilian atypical emergencies. This course is intended to familiarize Advanced Life Support Providers, Basic Life Support providers, EMS Medical Directors and Operational Leadership with the medical and tactical guidelines, medical evidence, controversies in high threat medicine, and explore the different types and brands of medical equipment involved in the TECC guidelines.​

• Take-home point #1: There are three phases of TECC medical care that are defined by the relationship of the provider to the threat. Each phases has a different set of medical priorities that are driven by the medical risk-benefit ratio.
• Take-home point #2: Indirect Threat Care is the phase where there is a continued realistic threat of further injury to the provider and patient but that threat is not tangible, well defined and immediate. In this phase of care, the medical priorities can be defined by the mnemonic MARCHE.
• Take-home point #3: TECC is applicable in all high threat operations where there is an ongoing risk to the provider and patient, and the tactical operations have impact and implications on medical operations. This is not limited to law enforcement related operations such as SWAT operations and Active Shooter response, but includes all high threat like medical response to explosive mass casualty, vehicle rammings, hazardous materials response, and technical rescue. ​​

This workshop will be taught directly by two of the co-founders and co-chairs of the Committee and will address current controversies and future direction and developments in TECC.