Wilderness Medicine
With the increasing popularity of outdoor and wilderness recreation, emergency physicians find themselves treating various conditions unique to the wilderness environment.
If you love the outdoors or have special expertise in wilderness medicine, join this section for the opportunity to share your knowledge with others. You’ll develop tools to identify the unique challenges of patient care in remote settings and find resources for continuing medical education and training programs. With your expertise, your membership can provide resources to other ACEP members.
2020 Wilderness Medicine Section Photo Contest Winning Photograph
If you haven't already, check out the winning photo and all entries on our section website. Congrats to the winner and thanks to all who submitted photos!
Into the Mist and Smoke (photo #61)
By Brian Tanksley
Medical Student at University of Southern California
Wilderness Medicine Annual Section Meeting
Our section held its annual meeting on Tuesday, October 27, 2020.
If you missed our meeting, make sure to check out the various member submitted videos that were presented during our meeting in addition to Dr. Zink’s full presentation. You must be a member of the section to access the content on engagED.
COVID in Alaska
by Anne Zink, MD, FACEP, Chief Medical Officer for the state of Alaska
Video Presentation: https://vimeo.com/469939669
Copy of the slides: https://engaged.acep.org/viewdocument/covid-in-alaska-ppt-slides-102720
Adventures in the Steep South: Climbing and Bouldering in the Southeastern US
by Olivia Victoriano
https://engaged.acep.org/viewdocument/adventures-in-the-deep-south-by-oli
3:1 Hauling System Demo
by Aubri Charnigo, MD
https://engaged.acep.org/viewdocument/31-hauling-system-demo-by-aubri-ch
Backyard to Beach: A reasonably reckless canoe trip from Augusta to Tybee Island
by Michael Caudell, MD, FACEP
https://engaged.acep.org/viewdocument/from-backyard-to-beach-augusta-to
Featured Newsletter Articles
Welcoming Diversity in Wilderness Settings
by Dave Young, MD
If you’ve heard about the devastating pandemic hitting our country this year, then you’re also familiar with the uncovering of racial tensions related to police brutality and systemic oppression. Congratulations, you’re not living under a rock. That said, maybe living under a rock these days is the safest disposition – both physically as well as mentally. Of course, that’s no way to live, and facing challenges head on both personally and collectively is the only way things get better. This is why I want to take a few minutes to discuss how diversity affects our passion – the wilderness. Read the full article in our latest newsletter.
20 Years of MedWAR
by Cassie Lowry, Edmark, DO
Simulated training has found a foothold in the core principles of medical education in this country. Likewise, the community of adventure racing has grown exponentially. MedWAR (Medical Wilderness Adventure Race) was conceived twenty years ago as a marriage between the two concepts and has expanded all over North America, including races in conjunction with larger professional medical society meetings. MedWAR attracts racers, volunteers, and facilitators from a wide array of backgrounds and experience unified by a passion for wilderness medicine and education. Read the full history.
Race Medicine: A video podcast for endurance events
Emergency Medicine practitioners are the most common medical directors and staff for both recreational and professional racing competitions. In spite of this, there is little formal training specific to the illnesses and injuries that athletes sustain during these events. The purpose of this race medicine video series is to fill an educational gap for those providing care at endurance events so as to improve the care provided to these athletes. This is a 7 video series. Each video covers a topic related to race medicine from an overview to preparation and an approach to specific illnesses and injuries.
Trauma in the Wilderness
The March 2019 issue of Critical Decisions in Emergency Medicine features: Force of Nature, Trauma in the Wilderness written by Wilderness Medicine Section members Andrew Park, DO, MPH and Thomas Seibert, MD, MS. Please note that only CDEM subscribers can earn CME credit for reading it– although the information itself is very valuable.
Listen to the accompanying podcast -- it's the second lesson, about half way through at 16:10.
We Won an Award!
The Wilderness Medicine Section is the recipient of a 2018 ACEP Service to Section Award for the section’s exemplary work in providing excellent resources and educational offerings to its members!
Special congratulations on the “Adventures Outside of the ED” exhibit at ACEP17 in Washington, DC. The unique combination of activities (book signings, hands-on demonstrations, scenarios, educational presentations!) coupled with a climbing wall provided a rich attendee experience and was a highlight of the exhibit floor for many.
Special thanks to Drs. Michael Caudell, Christopher Kang, Lori Weichenthal and Taylor Haston for their vision, leadership and efforts in bringing this exciting new feature to ACEP17!
Connect With Your Peers
Wilderness Medicine Section members may send an email to all members of this section via our online engagED community.
Contact Us
For inquiries, questions, or comments about the section, please send an email to the staff liaison.
