Sir Paul Baker, of Auckland, KNZM for services to health
Associate Professor Sir Paul Baker is New Zealand’s leading authority on airway management, who has shaped clinical practice nationally and internationally. Sir Paul was a foundation consultant anaesthetist at Starship Children’s Hospital, and has contributed more than 40 years as an airway management specialist and paediatric anaesthetist. In 1996 he significantly advanced patient safety by creating AirwaySkills, the first training programme in the southern hemisphere teaching the management of difficult airways. Through AirwaySkills, he has personally trained more than 5,000 anaesthetists, emergency physicians and intensive-care doctors. He founded the medical innovation company Airway Limited in 2006. He led the invention of ORSIM, a virtual reality bronchoscopy training simulator, now used in more than 40 countries and in prestigious medical universities such as Harvard, Oxford and Yale. In 2004 he led a team of 26 clinicians to successfully perform New Zealand’s first Ex Utero Intrapartum Treatment (EXIT) procedure, one of the most high-risk and technically demanding operations in modern medicine. He has authored or co-authored 96 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on airway safety, paediatric airway management and medical ethics. His research led to the adoption of national equipment standards, ensuring every operating theatre is equipped to manage difficult airways. Sir Paul was Chairman of the international committee of the World Airway Management Meeting, and President of the Society for Airway Management USA.