The ‘David Weil Extreme Medicine Award’ (DWEMA) and is by invitation only and we are very pleased to annouce the winners of the 2014 awards

The sponsorship scheme was set up to enable worthy medical candidates, who otherwise might not be able to afford, to attend the conference.  The learnings would then be applied to medicine provided in extreme, front line, disaster & relief environments and in turn relieve suffering and advance medical care in the situations where typically treatment would be laking. The award also serves to promote new qualified individuals who show great promise in the area of disastor, humantarian and remote medicine.

Dr Sanjaya Karki

Born in the beautiful landscape of Nepal has completed schooling from Nepal   graduated from Dow Medical College, Pakistan in 2003, since then he has been actively participating in Nepal and elsewhere for the promotion of Emergency and Extreme medicine.

After finishing medical school he was involved in the department of Emergency in Kathmandu Medical College and teaching hospital, Nepal as a medical officer.  In  2008 Karki completed the European official double masters in Health and Welfare from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and EHESS –Paris, France.  Soon after he was involved  with Ministry of Health in association of THE GLOBAL FUND and worked in the capacity of Monitoring and evaluation officer in the different districts of Nepal in Malaria program .

With the great passion in humanitarian activities he later joined Medecins Sans Frontieres –Holland and was deployed in the Rakhine state of Myanmar.   Being highly committed in the emergency medicine he later joined 3 years of residency in Emergency medicine in Norman Bethune College of medicine, China . After completing the course he has joined Grande International Hospital, Nepal in the capacity of In charge and consultant  of the Emergency Department, as well advocated in the formation of Emergency medical service and helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) .

He has been advocating in the dire need  of well equipped ambulances even in the underdeveloped countries like Nepal and elsewhere which can save lives and can prevent death.   In the matter of rescuing patients : not only helicopter is enough , in addition, expert medical team should be there on board with the medical equipments where we can save life .This is the main advocating part of Dr Karki because in Nepal still there is no standard EMS and HEMS has established.

Mountains are precious natural gift  to human being and people face challenges out there and Nepal very rich in mountains, Dr Karki is strictly on there should be the best medical unit and established medical facility.  Following the fact he was involved in rescuing many patients from the different part of Nepal by helicopter.  April 2014.  Dr Karki showed  immense courage ,coordination and presence of mind to perform the Heli rescue from the site himself risking his own life. That was on 20,000 ft high, Mount Makalu,Nepal. climbers were stranded on crevasse for about 19 hours.  He went well beyond gone beyond the call of duty and applied extreme effort in saving human life.

Currently Dr Karki is working in the position of Scientific research fellow in the University clinic –Leipzig, Germany.  He has been working to figure out if there could be any measures to detect lung cancer in the early stage even in the Emergency department .In addition to this he has been working in a molecular level in order to find out the role of Phospholipid transfer protein in relation of COPD.

Dr Karki is writing a book about the protocol of emergency medicine.

Dr Therese White

In April 2011 Therese was honoured to be chosen as the last UK medical student to experience a medical elective with NASA’s aerospace medical team in Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. It was a very special time to intern with the team as we were in preparation for STS-134 Endeavour- the second last ever space shuttle launch from the KSC.

During my time with NASA I trained with the Department of Defence, preparing for emergency contingency plans for launch day; explored the Space Life Science Lab and presented my research project entitled “Would I survive in space? Infectious disease and the US Space Program”. The project explored the medical obstacles that we need to overcome, to ensure safe long-haul space missions to optimise crew health. This internship sparked my fascination with aerospace medicine and how we can use microgravity as an innovative medical research platform.

Since July 2012 I have worked as a scientific advisor with The Exomedicine Institute, a unique space and technology organisation pioneering in microgravity research; of which Nobel prize winning physician Baruch Blumberg was a founding member. I have prepared a research proposal which outlines microgravity designed experiments in cystic fibrosis and gene therapy, diabetes and infectious disease. With the highly motivated, inspiring and talented Exomedicine team, there are exciting initiatives being prepared for microgravity research being launched and experimented on the International Space Station over the next three years.

EXTREME MEDICINE CONFERENCE

To nominate please contact Mark Hannaford, Managing Director, Expedition & Wilderness Medicine; admin@expedition-medicine.com

Successful applicants must have demonstrated considerable commitment to the field of humanitarian or disaster medicine and be registered as a medical professional, must be free for the entire conference and will be expected to prepare a post conference report.   Applications are welcome from medics of all nationalities.

David is a Hong Kong/ London based entrepreneur who is passionate about using his resources to make positive social change and has supported EWM for a number of years and he has offered to cover the following expenses;

• Travel & expenses from your home to the conference and return
• Food & Accommodation whilst at the conference
• Free entry to both the Pre Conference workshop running on the preceding weekend and the Conference itself
• Winners  have the right to call yourself joint-winner of the 2014 David Weil Extreme Medicine Award to use the conference logos and branding in an appropriate manner