Expedition and Wilderness Medicine

With an increase in visits to remote and dangerous locations around the world, the number of serious and fatal injuries and illnesses associated with these expeditions has markedly increased. Medical personnel working in or near such locations are not always explicitly trained in the management of unique environmental injuries, such as high-altitude sickness, the bends, lightning strikes, frostbite, acute dehydration, venomous stings and bites, and tropical diseases. Many health care professionals seek training in the specialty of wilderness medicine to cope with the health risks faced when far removed from professional care resources, and the American College of Emergency Medicine has recently mandated that a minimum level of proficiency needs to be exhibited by all ER physicians in this discipline. This book covers everything a prospective field physician or medical consultant needs to prepare for when beginning an expedition and explains how to treat a variety of conditions in a concise, clinically oriented format.

Part I. Expedition Planning: 1. The expedition physician Howard J. Donner; 2. Assessing expedition needs William W. Forgey; 3. Expedition medical kit William W. Forgey; 4. Immunizations David A. Townes and Russell McMullen; 5. Legal considerations during expedition planning Kristin Larson and Tracey Knutson; 6. Travel safety Michael VanRooyen; 7. Nutritional support for expeditions H. Wayne Askew; 8. Water safety Howard Backer; 9. Special considerations Blair Dillard Erb, Sr.; 10. Communications planning for the expedition medical officer Christian Macedonia; 11. Minimizing risk on an expedition Michael J. Manyak; 12. The expedition returns Randy Hyer; Part II. Expeditions in Unique Environments: 13. Tactical and protective medicine Nelson Tang, Kevin B. Gerold and Richard Carmona; 14. Hostile geopolitical environments Michael VanRooyen; 15. Aerospace medicine Richard S. Williams and Marc A. Shepanek; 16. Polar medicine Desmond Lugg and Jeff Ayton; 17. Tropical medicine for expeditions Peter Hotez and David M. Parenti; 18. Medicine in subterranean environments William Hamilton; 19. High-altitude medicine Luanne Freer and Peter H. Hackett; 20. Medicine at sea Joyce M. Johnson; 21. Event medicine David A. Townes; 22. Telemedicine in evolution - implications for expeditionary medicine William P. Wiesmann, M. Nicole Draghic and L. Alex Pranger; 23. Dive medicine Craig Cook; Part III. Illness and Injuries on Expeditions: 24. General medical J. Lee Jenkins, Edbert B. Hsu, Italo Subbaro, Kisha Moore and Alex Vu; 25. Traveler's diarrhea R. Bradley Sack; 26. Malaria Christian Ockenhouse; 27. Animal attacks Jenny Hargrove and Luanne Freer; 28. Envenomations Michael Callahan; 29. Hazardous marine life Craig Cook; 30. Toxicology Timothy B. Erickson and Janet Y. Lin; 31. Environmental injuries Kenneth Kamler; 32. Penetrating and explosive wounds Ian S. Wedmore and John G. McManus; 33. Drowning and submersion injury Bradley Winters; 34. Trauma resuscitation Elliot Haut and Rajan Gupta; 35. Wound care James M. Marinucci; 36. Expedition eye injuries Stanley Spielman; 37. Dental emergencies Martin Nweeia; 38. Foot injuries John VonHoff and Zak Weis; 39. Expedition orthopedics Alan Gianotti and S. V. Mahadevan; 40. Expedition self-rescue and evacuation Ken Zafren and Urs Wiget; 41. Aeromedical evacuations Gene DeLaune.

Health care professionals now seek training in the speciality of wilderness medicine in order to cope with the health risks faced when far removed from professional care resources. This book covers everything a prospective field physician or medical consultant needs to prepare for when beginning an expedition.

Dr Gregory H. Bledsoe is a board-certified Emergency Medicine physician at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the founder and CEO of ExpedMed. After completing medical school and residency at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Dr Bledsoe spent five years on faculty at the Johns Hopkins University, completing a fellowship in international emergency medicine and a master's in public health. He has worked as a field physician and medical consultant all over the world, served as an instructor and medical consultant for the United States Secret Service, and escorted presidents William Clinton and George W. Bush on trips to Africa as a personal physician. Most recently, Dr Bledsoe has worked in Qatar on emergency medicine through a partnership between the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Hamad Medical Corporation.
Dr Michael J. Manyak is Vice President for Medical Affairs for Cytogen Corporation. He is also a professor of Urology, Engineering Microbiology, and Tropical Medicine at The George Washington University and on staff at the Center for Prostate Disease Research at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Dr. Manyak is a medical advisor to several field exploration organizations, was selected as a Fellow National of The Explorers Club in 1992, and received their Sweeney Medal in 2004. His column on Expedition Medicine currently appears in Explorer's Journal.
Dr David A. Townes is an associate professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Medical Director of Adventuremed in Seattle, Washington. He received his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts and completed his residency in emergency medicine, a fellowship in international emergency medicine and earned a diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at the University of London. Dr Townes has worked as an onsite physician and medical consultant in remote and dangerous locations around the world, including Costa Rica and Antarctica.