Medical Professionals Going to Extremes

The idea for World Extreme Medicine was dreamt up, fittingly, as the company’s founding director, Mark Hannaford, sat around a campfire in the deserts of Namibia more than two decades ago, having a chance conversation about the impossibility of finding good expedition medics. From that first Eureka moment to today, B Corp Certified, U.K.-based World Extreme Medicine has stayed true to its mission to equip health-care professionals with the skills and knowledge required to deliver care in the most challenging environments.

The annual World Extreme Medicine (WEM) Conference has taken place for several years — and will be held again in 2025 — in dedicated conference space at Edinburgh, Scotland’s Dynamic Earth science center. In November, more than 50 speakers, from a trauma surgeon to a U.S. astronaut, gave presentations, delivered workshops, and participated in panel discussions for an audience of 300 global health-care professionals, including doctors, nurses, paramedics, allied health professionals, and dentists — “we even get a few vets!” Sue McDonagh, WEM course coordinator, told Convene via email.

Part of the WEM Conference is an exhibition component — “companies that offer value to our attendees are invited to exhibit,” McDonagh said, “everything from educational providers to kit providers.” Informal networking is facilitated by a conference app and an event highlight: a Sunday evening social or ceilidh, with Scottish folk music and singing, traditional dancing, and storytelling.

While many sessions take place indoors, it wouldn’t be the World Extreme Medicine Conference without an outdoor program, which includes hands-on workshops on physio taping and childbirth as well as sessions on wilderness dentistry, covering everything from a crisis situation — a simulation of an IED explosion at a humanitarian post — to vehicle maintenance. Which, for extreme medicine practitioners, is all just part of the territory.

Choose Your Adventure Session

Since those who practice extreme medicine have to be prepared for anything, the World Extreme Medicine Conference covers a broad swath of topics. A sampling of session titles from the 2024 program:

• “The World Is Watching” — providing medical care at the biggest sports event in the world
• “Mud, Blood, and Tampons” — a taboo-busting session on menstrual lessons from the military
• “Exertional Heat Illness in the Climate Crisis — Too Hot to Exercise?”

Michelle Russell is editor in chief at Convene.

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