Critical Care Training Associates
Critical Care Labs
Providing clear, fundamental education
Our Mission
The purpose of these educational programs is to improve performance in Emergency Medicine and Critical Care Medicine.
We take the intimidation out of high risk, low frequency procedures using hands-on classes with individual coaching. Our focus is on performance and we achieve results by teaching fundamental skills and making them seem uncomplicated.
Our courses were initially developed in 1994 at the request of Maine physicians and critical care transport providers who needed to improve their skills, particularly emergency airway and trauma management skills. CCTA developed a unique, humane training program using fresh sheep cadavers, and our education modules have evolved to become effective labs that provide instruction and real-world simulation that allow students to master skills that actually translate to clinical practice. The results speak for themselves, and the program continues to grow after 28 years of ongoing development and improvement.
As an example of the effectiveness of our training programs, since 1998 all LifeFlight of Maine (LOM) providers have been required to participate in CCTA labs on an annual basis. The results have been dramatic. Over the past 15 years, LOM has had 99-100% success rates in their emergency airway interventions. These include even the most difficult patients under the most difficult circumstances. These results speak clearly to the effectiveness of CCTA programs, and to the need to expand their availability not only throughout Maine, but also to physicians and critical care providers in other states.
We offer 2 main classes:
1) Advanced Airway Skills Lab (AASL) is training on how to approach every airway like a difficult airway and RSI training. It is a skills lab using almost 2 dozen mannequins all with different airway challenges.
2) Advanced Trauma Skills Lab (ATSL) is our cadaver lab, starting with surgical airway training on pig necks, and then very high fidelity intubation, chest tube, and surgical airway training on fresh sheep cadavers. The sheep are humanely put down just before class and butchered immediately after class and sold for meat. None of the animals go to waste, and they're all sheep that are raised for meat and sold for meat before the class, so this is not in any way some sort of medical-training-sacrifice event. This class is best taken after the AASL, and they compliment each other very well.
Meet the Core Faculty
Medical Director
Peter Brooks, DO
President and Program Director
Peter Goth, MD, FACEP
Operations Director
Curtis Bramhall, NREMT-A
Affiliate Instructors
Tim Pieh, MD, Emergency Medicine
Jonnathan Busko, MD, Emergency Medicine
Upcoming Courses
☤ Advanced Airway Skills Labs:
2 AASL labs this year already completed
5/13/24 (full)
6/3/24 (full)
9/6/24
12/3/24
☤ Advanced Trauma Skills Labs:
5/22/24 (full)
6/4/24 (full)
6/7/24 (full)
7/25/24
8/2/24
9/7/24 (full)
9/13/24
10/4/24
12/4/24
“The models developed by CCTI have allowed me and countless others to not only maintain but also advance their skills in low frequency/high risk EM procedures. The use of real fresh tissue far exceeds any other modality for the feel of these procedures which is so critical in skill development and maintenance. It has contributed to the success of my organization in rural Emergency Medicine.”
Guy Nuki MD MBA
Chief Medical Officer of BlueWater Health