Extreme Medicine '15 – 'so whats so different this year?'…
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To coincide with World Humanitarian Day, a number of the country’s leading medical and NGO experts are calling for an urgent review of the way that healthcare is delivered to those most in need during and in the aftermath of a crisis.
News Release |Wednesday 19 August 2015
The Extreme Medicine Conference is a vital forum to bring the best minds from around the globe together to share and most importantly disseminate information and learning from disparate healthcare specialties.
They bring expertise from diverse environments to develop best practice that is the foundation of healthcare delivery on the frontline. Speakers at the conference will define the necessary proactive rather than reactive response to emergencies, as exemplified by the Ebola outbreak in 2014. Part of this is recognising and deploying the widest range of skillsets in a crisis, and facilitating joined up working across geopolitical boundaries.
‘Extreme medicine’ refers to the provision of medical care outside of conventional settings, typically in low resource environments that exist as a consequence of sudden onset disasters, conflict zones or being expeditionary locations. The medics who work in these remote settings are in a position to universally share relevant knowledge and experience as well as research and techniques with one another. A key benefit of this is integration with local medics delivering healthcare on the ground. It is these skills which experts suggest need to be recognised and cohesively deployed to relevant humanitarian disasters.
Dr Sean Hudson, Remote Medicine Specialist and Extreme Conference organizer said, “The Extreme Medicine Conference brings together specialists from disaster medicine under one roof so we can see and learn from other clinicians operating in other environments. It is one small step in terms of improved disaster response. Global disasters are going to be inevitably more frequent as a result of climate change and we should be on the front foot. Extreme medicine and global health need to be further recognised to allow for better responses across the world.”
Nick Gent, Deputy Head of Emergency Response at PHE “Extreme medicine practitioners come from a range of specialisms but they work in closely related areas so there’s a huge amount that can be shared between them. We have to look back and think about learning for the future, we have to always think about we can improve responses to issues such as Ebola.”
Ivan Gayton, Technological Innovation Adviser with the Manson Unit at Médecins Sans Frontières UK, said: “In order to provide effective health responses to those most in need, we must bring disciplines from all areas of remote and extreme medicine together to share learnings and knowledge. By doing this we can truly understand the constraints of the environments where the most urgent care is needed and draw on the experiences of those in the field to understand what would deliver the most successful outcome.”
Rob Williams, CEO of War Child, Charity partner to the Extreme Medicine Conference said, “Nobody is more vulnerable in conflict than children and War Child work closely with their parents and local staff to ensure they are getting the treatment they so desperately need. They are in dire need of urgent psychological support to help them come to terms with the traumas they have experienced and witnessed. But we want to respond quicker on a global scale and by humanitarian workers and medics from all fields sharing knowledge, we can all learn from each other and reach the optimum response. This is the ethos of the World Extreme Medicine Conference and why War Child is proud to a partner this year.”
ENDS
For more information and/or to arrange interviews with spokespeople, please contact:
Julia Flint | freuds | [email protected] | 0203 003 6593 or 07773331815
Jessica Hampton | freuds | [email protected] |0203 003 6415 or 07949 717217
Notes to editors:
This winter, Adventure For Good, in partnership with OceansWatch will be setting off from the Bay of Islands on a four-month expedition to deliver medical supplies to the Temotu province in the Solomon Islands. Over this period we will also be refitting medical clinics in the remote region and finally return to New Zealand with locally refined virgin coconut oil for a sustainable livelihoods programme.
Adventure For Good’s flagship – CALIPH has been undergoing an extensive renovation in preparation for her new role and will have a re-launching at Opua Marina on Friday, 5 June at 1400. Her voyage will begin from there in July and could include a stop in Vanuatu where she will be available to assist in relief efforts before continuing on her journey. AFG Chairman Christian Pera explains, “Both because of the remoteness of the area and its relatively low international profile, we are still trying to establish the full extent of the support needed in the wake of the recent cyclone season.” This will be the maiden voyage for Adventure For Good in their quest to engage young people in the immediacy of positive action over idle good intentions. “This expedition will be our first step towards becoming a force for positive action, both at home and abroad”.
Together with pioneering OceansWatch, they seek to make a lasting difference in these small communities by providing resources that ultimately promote independence and self-sufficiency.
ABOUT ADVENTURE FOR GOOD
Adventure For Good is a multi-facetted organization based in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. Incorporated in 2015, they endeavor to equip future decision makers with better skills to analyse, adapt, and most importantly– act for the better of their world. Follow our progress and adventures at
www.facebook.com/afgcentres
www.oceanswatch.org.
CONTACT: JAMIE GALLANT
MOBILE: 022 420 6957 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
EMAIL: [email protected]
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We hold three courses per year, visiting Keswick in March, Plas y Brenin in May but we’re kicking off the programme in Dartmoor this November.
We are a friendly, easy going, but hard working bunch who are used to long days, little rest and working together to get a job done. We do this with a ready smile and a can do attitude which very much reflects the EWM philosophy. As an intern we’d like you to be slot into our team straight away and be happy to muck in when and wherever we need you.
If you’re interested in joining us as an intern, you will need to make your own way to the course location on the afternoon prior to the course and remain until we are packed away on the final day. You’ll stay in the faculty accommodation and may be required to assist with almost any part of setting up the course; everything from setting up seating, packing med bags, sorting out kit or directing course delegates to specific locations. In return, while with us as, we will make every effort to ensure you are able to attend each lecture and workshop and of course, you’ll get to know our incredible faculty.
The next intern position available, will be for our Expedition & Wilderness Medicine course based in Dartmoor 16-19 November. You’ll need to get yourself to the venue, but we will provide all your home comforts for you. For all UK course dates click HERE
We welcome applications from the UK and overseas but are not able to reimburse travel expenses. To submit your application for consideration, please send us:
In return we only ask for your good humour, entertaining company, a course write up to be supplied to us with one month and agreement to make yourself available for a telephone interview post course.
Email your enquiries and submissions to [email protected]
To ensure you receive our emails make sure you add us to you safe senders list!
Courses of interest
We hold three courses per year, visiting Keswick in March, Plas y Brenin in May but we’re kicking off the programme in Dartmoor this November.
We are a friendly, easy going, but hard working bunch who are used to long days, little rest and working together to get a job done. We do this with a ready smile and a can do attitude which very much reflects the EWM philosophy. As an intern we’d like you to be slot into our team straight away and be happy to muck in when and wherever we need you.
If you’re interested in joining us as an intern, you will need to make your own way to the course location on the afternoon prior to the course and remain until we are packed away on the final day. You’ll stay in the faculty accommodation and may be required to assist with almost any part of setting up the course; everything from setting up seating, packing med bags, sorting out kit or directing course delegates to specific locations. In return, while with us as, we will make every effort to ensure you are able to attend each lecture and workshop and of course, you’ll get to know our incredible faculty.
The next intern position available, will be for our Expedition & Wilderness Medicine course based in Dartmoor 16-19 November. You’ll need to get yourself to the venue, but we will provide all your home comforts for you. For all UK course dates click HERE
We welcome applications from the UK and overseas but are not able to reimburse travel expenses. To submit your application for consideration, please send us:
In return we only ask for your good humour, entertaining company, a course write up to be supplied to us with one month and agreement to make yourself available for a telephone interview post course.
Email your enquiries and submissions to [email protected]
To ensure you receive our emails make sure you add us to you safe senders list!
Courses of interest
The Extreme Medicine Conference in 2015 will be featuring the unique work of photographers working within a humanitarian setting, working with MSF, UN Photographer Rob Holden, the Phoenix Foundation and WarChild, the conferences charity of the year. Each individual and organisation will be presenting 20 images that will inspire, provoke thought but ultimately create a desire for change…
First we feature some of the photography from inspirational image maker Rob Holden from a series entitled ‘A Tribute to Health Workers’.
Rob Holden is a documentary photographer who has been engaged with global humanitarian issues for the past 20 years. Through his work Rob strives to connect with real people and communicate a meaningful message. Working for a range of organisations such as the UK Government, the United Nations and NGO’s, he has operated most notably in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Nepal.
More recently, Rob spent several months in Ebola affected countries capturing images of health workers. Men and women who often go unrecognised for the critical work they play, and are risking their own lives to save the sick and dying, and protect the healthy from infection.
Health workers are the most important aspect of any health service. No health workers means no health service. The photo exhibition is devoted to honouring the dedication, selflessness, bravery and critical role of health workers who endeavour to help others, often in challenging and dangerous environments.
For further information: www.robholdenphotography.com
MORE ABOUT EXTREME MEDICINE ’15
Now in its fourth year, the World Extreme Medicine conference challenges thinking, builds bridges and shares new and more effective approaches to medical practice in the world’s most remote and austere locations.
The conference focuses on four related medical fields: Pre-Hospital, Disaster & Humanitarian, Expedition, and Extreme Medicine. Together, our programme of fascinating talks from world-renowned experts in their field – from Arctic explorers to vascular surgeons, remote medics to NASA personnel – and practical sessions on innovations and field-proven techniques and ‘hacks’, will inspire you and enhance your skills, helping you to become a more effective and highly valued practitioner of remote medicine.
INTERNATIONAL WORLD EXTREME MEDICINE CONFERENCE ’15 LONDON
Building on more than a decade of experience successfully delivering worldwide expedition and wilderness medicine courses, we have developed a new programme which will take our provision of learning to a new level and give medics across the globe an opportunity to work towards formal post graduate qualification in this incredibly exciting field of medicine. These formal qualifications will allow us to demonstrate the extent of our knowledge and skill level, professionalise Expedition Medicine to meet the needs of increasing levels of clinical governance and to improve patient safety, quality of care and outcomes in remote environments.
Working with a partner university, to establish these postgraduate courses and secure academic credibility, we are hoping to soon be in discussion with the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh and The Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care.
The new course programme will follow the existing format of postgraduate education and comprise modules that on completion, provide credits towards chosen levels of postgraduate learning. Here at Expedition & Wilderness Medicine, we understand that people lead busy lives and have limited annual leave, so we are tailoring the courses to allow a high proportion of flexible on line learning, coupled with intensive weekend and one week consolidation courses and workshops.
Expedition & Wilderness Medicine is also developing a mobile app to access learning resources and the global expedition and wilderness medicine community. Our app will provide us with a platform to engage with our community to help shape the evolving elective course content and modules- you can tell us what you want to learn. We are also engaging with our worldwide partners on the ground and in the field to give medics access to the key real world skills that will make them stand out from the crowd.
Our first core modules go live later this year and will be unveiled at the World Extreme Medicine Conference in London, 26-29 October. In addition we will be asking conference delegates for their opinions and ideas to help shape the courses and create a dynamic, two-way, adult learning experience.
Background
Expedition & Wilderness Medicine (EWM) is a leading provider of remote medical training to doctors, nurses and paramedics from across the globe. It uses experiential lectures to teach the clinical mind-set and practical skills necessary to be able to perform effectively in a to provide safe and effective medical care in low resource, hostile and austere environments.
EWM also hosts the World International Extreme Medicine conference series. This will be the platform for presentation of research and dissertation work from the final year of the MSc.
Now in its fourth year, the conference challenges thinking, builds bridges and introduces new ideas about medicine at its most remote and austere. The conference brings together four disparate but overlapping medical fields in one arena: Pre-Hospital, Disaster & Humanitarian, Expedition Medicine and Global Health, with experts in each field presenting the latest thinking and techniques, and sharing their inspiring stories. Venue information, Central Hall Westminster, 26-29 October, 2015: www.extrememedicineexpo.com
Contact Expedition & Wilderness Medicine or the Extreme Medicine Conference series on: 01297 20583 or at: [email protected]
Working with a partner university, to establish these postgraduate courses and secure academic credibility, we are hoping to soon be in discussion with the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh and The Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care.
The new course programme will follow the existing format of postgraduate education and comprise modules that on completion, provide credits towards chosen levels of postgraduate learning. Here at Expedition & Wilderness Medicine, we understand that people lead busy lives and have limited annual leave, so we are tailoring the courses to allow a high proportion of flexible on line learning, coupled with intensive weekend and one week consolidation courses and workshops.
Expedition & Wilderness Medicine is also developing a mobile app to access learning resources and the global expedition and wilderness medicine community. Our app will provide us with a platform to engage with our community to help shape the evolving elective course content and modules- you can tell us what you want to learn. We are also engaging with our worldwide partners on the ground and in the field to give medics access to the key real world skills that will make them stand out from the crowd.
Our first core modules go live later this year and will be unveiled at the World Extreme Medicine Conference in London, 26-29 October. In addition we will be asking conference delegates for their opinions and ideas to help shape the courses and create a dynamic, two-way, adult learning experience.
Background
Expedition & Wilderness Medicine (EWM) is a leading provider of remote medical training to doctors, nurses and paramedics from across the globe. It uses experiential lectures to teach the clinical mind-set and practical skills necessary to be able to perform effectively in a to provide safe and effective medical care in low resource, hostile and austere environments.
EWM also hosts the World International Extreme Medicine conference series. This will be the platform for presentation of research and dissertation work from the final year of the MSc.
Now in its fourth year, the conference challenges thinking, builds bridges and introduces new ideas about medicine at its most remote and austere. The conference brings together four disparate but overlapping medical fields in one arena: Pre-Hospital, Disaster & Humanitarian, Expedition Medicine and Global Health, with experts in each field presenting the latest thinking and techniques, and sharing their inspiring stories. Venue information, Central Hall Westminster, 26-29 October, 2015
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Partners In Health has helped respond to the epidemic, aiming to address not only Ebola but also the “staff, stuff, systems, and space” challenges that hamper containment efforts. PIH has recruited and trained American volunteers, many of whom are now working to curb Ebola alongside West African partners in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Several share their reflections below:
Partners In Health and Last Mile Health staff tour the Ebola Treatment Unit in Bong, Liberia, managed by the International Medical Corps.
Ebola emerged in West Africa in late 2013 and has spread across borders, killing thousands and leaving behind survivors and shattered families. Partners In Health has helped respond to the epidemic, aiming to address not only Ebola but also the “staff, stuff, systems, and space” challenges that hamper containment efforts. PIH has recruited and trained American volunteers, many of whom are now working to curb Ebola alongside West African partners in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Several share their reflections below:
January 1, 2015–It is crazy busy here [in Port Loko district, Sierra Leone], and I’ve cried every day. Not despondent crying, but trying to be appropriate and grieve when I need to. One of our employees, a 52-year-old sprayer (they spray us down with chlorine as we are taking off the personal protective equipment) died yesterday. He was the sole caregiver for two young boys, who were two of our last admits of 2014 yesterday.
One 28-year-old father who survived Ebola was nursing his last child (his wife and other kids died two weeks ago), and we tried so hard to get his baby through. You know where this is going. His last family member, a 1-year-old tiny little girl, died yesterday. Our staff sobbed at the gate when he wailed and said she was all he had left in the world.
It guts me to see their grief. I can deal with the corpses and the horrible illness, but their grief is overwhelming when I think about what it must feel like. They have nothing, live in dirt-floor shacks with a few goats and have to haul their unclean water from the river, have no available health care, and then they lose their family? I’m crying just writing this. I, we, have so much to be grateful for.
But if I had to choose a way to spend New Year’s Eve (I was on the 4 p.m.-12:30 a.m. shift last night), it would be to be doing what I was doing. Giving sleeping pills and valium to people who can’t sleep because of their suffering, feeding a starving little baby with no parents, sedating elderly encephalopathic adults. They just look terrified and mumble unintelligibly, but I can understand enough to know they are having awful hallucinations. And you know what? Sometimes they pull through, and I celebrate those victories; they keep me coming back.
We discharged nine survivors one day last week. I treated a case of cerebral malaria this week and transferred the patient to a government hospital that has one nurse on duty for 50 patients. I hope he gets his artesunate [medication for malaria], but we didn’t want him to catch Ebola just because he had the bad luck to catch malaria in the middle of this epidemic.
So that was my New Year’s Eve. Today I have the only day off I will have for an entire month, and I woke up to go on a 10K run on a relatively cool, breezy morning. I ran through several villages where little kids ran to the road yelling “abado!” (white person!), and adults said “Happy New Year and thank you!” (I am crying again—it’s so beautiful to have people from the community say thanks for what you are doing.) A few little kids ran along with me for a while, and we raced from sign to sign. It will be very difficult to leave this place when it is my time to go.
Luanne Freer
Article (c) Partners in Health
Thanks to Kris Vandervoort for applying to the Belgian Accreditation Council & securing 32 credit points. Belgian medics will need a certificate of attendance & a copy of the approval she received.
Email admin[email protected] so we can collate your details.
For 25 years London’s Air Ambulance has been at the forefront of pre-hospital emergency medicine, gaining a reputation for clinical excellence and pioneering procedures which have been adopted across the world.
Next month, ahead of the World Extreme Medicine Expo, on the 6th and 7th of November, London’s Air Ambulance is hosting a two-day Pre-Hospital Care Workshop as a precursor to the Extreme Medicine Conference 2014 to give delegates and medical practitioners an insight into the work of the charity and to share some of its advanced practices.
The charity has achieved survival figures for traumatic cardiac arrest and pre-hospital thoracotomy, and success rates for adult and paediatric intubation, which are among the highest in the world.
The workshop will give practitioners the opportunity to get involved with medical demonstrations and scenario based exercises while also providing access to the senior consultants and paramedics responsible for London’s Air Ambulance governance, major incident planning, research and innovation.
Speaking about the event, consultant and education lead, Dr Gareth Grier said: “London’s Air Ambulance has treated over 31,000 patients, which we recognise is a huge amount of experience and learning developed over 25 years. By passing on this knowledge we can help to drive excellence in pre-hospital care standards”.
“Many of the techniques we have pioneered have become widespread as a result of being heard and talked about at events such as this one. During the workshop we will be showcasing some of our more recent innovations, REBOA being one of them, discussing the future of pre-hospital care, challenging conventional wisdom and hopefully, inspiring the next generation of trauma specialists”.
Earlier this year London’s Air Ambulance became the first service to perform roadside balloon surgery to control severe internal bleeding on a patient who had fallen from height. Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta (REBOA) is just one of the practical demonstrations delegates can participate in amid a programme that will look at biological terrorism, crew resource management at complex pre-hospital scenes and the role of a UK pre-hospital doctor in the international response to humanitarian disasters.
Programme Overview:
Day One
Seminar topics:
Introduction and overview of London’s Air Ambulance and Pre-hospital Care in the UK
The role of a UK pre-hospital doctor in the international response to humanitarian disasters
Biological Terrorism
Crew Resource Management at complex pre-hospital scenes
The medical response to major incidents in London
Workshops:
Pre-hospital advanced airway
Emergency thoracotomy
Emergency Neurosurgery
Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta (REBOA)
Day Two
Seminar topics:
Pre-hospital blood transfusion in civilian trauma
Damage control anaesthesia – lessons from Afghanistan and London
Opportunities for medical students in pre-hospital care
Paramedic scene leadership during advanced pre-hospital interventions
Defying medical dogma – case studies from the pre-hospital phase
The future in pre-hospital care Nanorobots and suspended animation
Workshops:
Various scenario based training exercises
We might be based in Axminster, a small town in East Devon, but here at Expedition & Wilderness Medicine we have been helping train medical professionals the world over.
We’re proud to be the leading provider of expedition, wilderness and remote medicine training courses for medical professionals, and are delighted to have experienced considerable growth and success in recent years.
Expedition & Wilderness Medicine was co-founded in 2002 after a late night fireside conversation during an expedition in the deserts of Nambia, by our Managing Director, Mark Hannaford… and the rest they say is history. Today the company offers an abundance of courses throughout the world, including training in Trauma & Hostile, Diving, Jungle and Mountain medicine to name but a few. Quite the achievement, when you think our first offering was a single course in the Lake District!
As we have grown, so have the partnerships we have formed with world famous institutions, including London’s Royal Medical School, Harvard Medical School and National Geographic. Expedition & Wilderness Medicine also has the support of Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
In addition to this, 2014 has already seen some fantastic achievements for us, including:
· Being selected by the production team behind the 2015 Hollywood film ‘Everest’ to supply on-location training and guidance
· Providing medical advice and reach back service to companies operating in a remote area of Iraq and trauma training in Liberia
· All courses operating at nearly 100% capacity
· A fully subscribed World Extreme Medicine Conference & Expo taking place in London in November this year
And earlier this month we held a course at Dartmoor’s Heatree Centre which was attended by 40 medical professionals from several different countries, including Australia, Italy and Switzerland, highlighting the increasing worldwide interest in medical training courses.
QUOTE BLOCK: ‘I am thrilled with the rate in which Expedition & Wilderness Medicine has grown. The most rewarding element of our work is when we receive testimonials and endorsements from people that have attended our courses and are now putting the skills they learnt into practice in the most diverse range of locations. Especially as these are often the regions where vital medical assistance is most urgently required’. – Mark Hannaford
We are delighted with the response that Expedition & Wilderness Medicine has received since our inception and with your help; we look forward to continuing on our diverse and challenging path for many years to come!
If you would like to know more about any of our courses, contact us today to find out more.
Dr Natalie Roberts is member of Médecins Sans Frontières’ Emergency Team, currently working as MSF’s Medical Coordinator for Syria.
Researchers from the University of Queensland, headed up by Extreme Medicine speaker Professor Craig Franklin, say that ability of the burrowing frog species Cyclorana alboguttata (pictured) to maintain muscle mass while dormant could help overcome the problem of astronaut’s own muscles deteriorating during long trips in zero gravity.
Although floating weightless in space is something many would-be astronauts dream of, this unique environment takes its toll – leaving muscles drastically under-used and causing a number of health problems from tendonitis to fat accumulation.
With a manned mission to Mars taking anywhere between 39 and 289 days depending on how close the planet is, astronauts would certainly benefit from anything that ensured they were in top physical condition upon arrival on the planet’s surface.
Scientists studying the frog say that that one of its genes known as ‘survivin’ could help. When faced with droughts in their native Australia, the frog survives by burrowing underground and covering itself with a cocoon of shed skin.
This keeps them relatively insulated from harm – but the survivin gene is necessary to protect them from their own bodies. Cells have many different ‘suicide mechanisms’ but one in particular kicks in to remove matter that is apparently damaged – something it judges by long periods of inactivity. Survivin stops this from happening.
“If we can understand the cell signalling pathways that confer resistance to muscle wasting, then these could be useful candidates to study in mammalian muscle atrophy,” said PhD student Beau Reilly in a press release.
“These could help to develop therapies to treat bedridden human patients or even astronauts, who frequently lose muscle tone when exposed to reduced-gravity conditions.”
This sort of research could be even more important for journeys into space further afield than Mars. If scientists can’t develop faster propulsion technology in the future then even travelling to nearby stars could take tens of thousands of years.
“I am fascinated in animals that survive in extreme conditions” said Miss Reilly. “I think humans and modern medicine could learn a great deal from organisms such as burrowing frogs”.
Meet Professor Franklin and a whole galaxy of other thought provoking speakers including NASA doc Micheal Barrett at the next Extreme Medicine Conference in London
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