Wilderness Medicine

Starting April 2010 Brown University Department of Emergency Medicine will be offering a two-week medical student elective in Wilderness and Environmental Medicine.

This elective will provide an overview of medical emergencies particular to extreme environments and locations beyond immediate access to hospital care. Participants will engage in a series of lectures, small group skills sessions and wilderness simulation scenarios and begin to build a foundation of knowledge and skills necessary to provide effective evaluation, triage, acute management and transport of sick and injured patients in the wilderness.

The course syllabus is divided into two portions.  The first week will be a combination of didactic lectures, hands on training sessions (eg splint building), simulation scenarios with post-session analysis and discussion, and field trips to locally relevant sites such as the coast guard station and hyperbaric center.  The second week will take place in New Hampshire based out of a cabin and consist of training sessions and simulation scenarios in and around the White Mountains.

The course is open to all third and fourth-year medical students who have completed a core medicine and surgery rotation and will be graded on a pass/fail basis. Check back to this site for updates:

Date: April, 19th to 30th 2010

Cost: to be determined

Course contact: Garreth Biegun, MD  garreth.biegun@gmail.com