As the Chinese saying goes, “Peach and plum trees do not speak, yet a path forms beneath them”—a tribute to the recognition earned through dedication and achievement. From October 9 to 11, 2026, the National Airway Conference (NAC 2026), held jointly with the International Airway Management Meeting (IAMM 2026), took place at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, India. Jointly organized by the International Airway Management Society (IAMS) and the All India Difficult Airway Association (AIDAA), the event brought together leading airway management experts from dozens of countries and regions, including China, the United States, India, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Brazil, Italy, Ukraine, Qatar, and South Africa. Participants held in-depth discussions on advances in airway management technology, clinical practice, education and training, and multidisciplinary collaboration. The conference was livestreamed in its entirety on the Xin Qing Nian Anesthesia Forum, Tongpu Medicine, Gu Ma Jin Zui, and Miller’s Voice platforms, attracting more than 170,000 cumulative views.
 
 

Scenes from the IAMS meeting in India.


    The International Airway Management Society (IAMS) was established in the United States in 2016 by 75 prominent airway management experts from 17 countries and regions. It is currently the only global airway management society spanning Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Africa. Its founding president was Professor Huafeng Wei, a renowned airway management expert and tenured professor at the University of Pennsylvania, United States.
During the conference, IAMS celebrated its 10th anniversary and held a leadership handover ceremony. Professor Wuhua Ma assumed the presidency of IAMS. The new leadership also includes three vice presidents: Professor Kemal Tolga Saracoglu, current President of the European Airway Management Society; Professor Daniel Perin, current President of the Society for Airway Management (SAM), United States; and Professor Rakesh Garg, former Editor-in-Chief of the Indian Journal of Anaesthesia and an airway management expert. Hui Qiao of Fudan University and Bailin Jiang of Peking University serve as secretaries, and Justin Liu of the United States serves as treasurer. Professor Ma’s assumption of the IAMS presidency marks a further increase in the influence of China’s airway management community within international academic organizations and opens up greater opportunities to share China’s experience in airway management with the world.
 
The new IAMS leadership team, with Professor Wuhua Ma serving as President.
    During the conference, Professor Ma delivered a lecture entitled “ABS Algorithm for Difficult-Airway Management and Practice,” in which he systematically presented the design principles and clinical experience underlying the ABS Algorithm for Difficult-Airway Management, which he developed.
 
Professor Wuhua Ma delivering his lecture.


    Professor Wuhua Ma has been recognized as a leading healthcare talent in Guangdong Province and was named among the inaugural group of “Xinglin Distinguished Physicians” at Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine. He has consistently applied innovative thinking to clinical practice, training, and research in airway management. He has led or supervised six projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and more than 10 provincial, ministerial, and other research projects. He has published more than 100 papers, including articles in leading anesthesiology journals.
    In 2008, Professor Ma developed the ABS Algorithm for Difficult-Airway Management by integrating the traditional Chinese medical principle that “the finest physicians prevent illness before it arises” with modern management strategies. Its simplicity, ease of recall, and practicality have earned it broad recognition among colleagues in China and abroad. A national survey showed that 68% of anesthesiologists were familiar with and used the ABS algorithm. In 2016, his original monograph, The ABS Algorithm for Difficult-Airway Management and Practice, was published by People’s Medical Publishing House.
    Over the years, Professor Ma and his team have achieved a series of firsts in airway management. In 2011, they established China’s first Airway Instrument Museum, which has welcomed more than 3,000 experts, scholars, and industry research and development personnel from around the world for visits and professional exchanges. In 2013, their institution became the first nationally designated airway training base in South China. In 2014, he created “Baymax Treasure Hunt,” a clinical skills competition in flexible videoendoscopy. It subsequently became an event in the national clinical skills competition organized by the Chinese Society of Anesthesiology of the Chinese Medical Association, with more than 12,000 anesthesiologists from over 4,600 hospitals across China taking part.
    In 2016, Professor Ma established China’s first Airway Management Training School, which has trained physicians from nearly 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions. In 2022, he created the world’s first gastric ultrasound assessment clinical skills competition, themed “The Finest Physicians Prevent Illness Before It Arises,” and trained a large number of physicians proficient in gastric ultrasound assessment. In 2024, he led the establishment of China’s first specialist committee dedicated to airway management, the Airway Management Committee of the Guangdong Association of Integrative Medicine. In 2025, he led the development of China’s first Expert Consensus on Perioperative Gastric Ultrasound Assessment.
    Professor Ma also holds several academic appointments, including Deputy Head of the Airway Management Training Group of the Anesthesiology Expert Committee for Capacity Building and Continuing Education under the National Health Commission; Deputy Head of the Airway Management Group of the Chinese Society of Anesthesiology, Chinese Medical Association; Chair of the Airway Management Committee of the Guangdong Association of Integrative Medicine; and Vice Chair of the Anesthesiology Branch of the Guangdong Medical Association.
    His honors include the Outstanding Contribution Award from the Guangzhou Medical Association in 2013 and the Distinguished Educator Award in Airway Management from IAMS in 2016. In June 2018, his team received the Elite Team Award from the Anesthesiology Branch of the Chinese Association of Integrative Medicine. In September 2018, he received the International Speaker Award from the Society for Airway Management (SAM), United States. In April 2019, he received the China Outstanding Anesthesiologist Award from the Anesthesiology Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association.
    Professor Ma has been invited to deliver plenary lectures and specialized presentations in more than 120 cities or countries worldwide. These engagements have included world airway conferences in Amsterdam, Ireland, and Italy; the SAM Annual Meeting in Chicago; an Asian conference on anesthesia and sleep in Hong Kong; the Korean airway management congress; the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; a joint anesthesiology conference involving eight South Asian countries in Sri Lanka; Jena University in Germany; a regional airway conference in Malaysia; the joint National Airway Conference and International Airway Management Meeting in India; and Peking Union Medical College Hospital. He has also provided airway management training for healthcare professionals from dozens of countries, including countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, countries across Asia and Australasia, East Asian countries, and the eight South Asian countries.
    Professor Ma’s appointment as President of IAMS recognizes his academic achievements, clinical expertise, and contributions to the dissemination of airway management training. It also acknowledges decades of work by China’s airway management expert community. Under the leadership of distinguished experts including Professor Xinmin Wu, who also headed the preparatory group for airway management; Professor Ming Tian, head for the first and second terms; Professor Mingzhang Zuo, head for the third and fourth terms; and Professor Sihua Qi, the current head, Chinese airway management experts have continued to share China’s achievements in clinical care, education and training, and scientific research on the international academic stage, while deepening exchanges and collaboration with colleagues worldwide.
    Looking ahead, Professor Ma emphasized in his address that IAMS would continue to pursue its vision by uniting experts worldwide and putting into practice the principle that “the finest physicians prevent illness before it arises.” With innovation as a driving force, the society will draw on Chinese ideas and expertise to advance teaching, training, professional development, and scientific research in airway management around the world. Its ultimate goal is to continually improve standards of airway management and safeguard patient safety.