Lessons from Wilderness Medicine: Ross Hofmeyr

Ross Hofmeyr divulges some stories from his experience of wilderness and expedition medicine.

In his words, wilderness and expedition medicine is the epitome of practical, pragmatic, minimalist and thoughtful care. Austere and extreme environments require special knowledge, critical thinking, innovative practice, and sometimes cunning improvisation.

Moreover, diagnosis in the wilderness relies heavily on clinical examination skills. Monitoring is limited and treatment options are determined by the individual practitioner’s hands-on skills.

Furthermore, the implications of extreme environments – high pressures and altitude, frigid and sweltering temperatures, hypoxia, and high-intensity endurance exercise – can provide us with great insight into the physiology of humans responding and adapting to critical illness.

Join Ross as he displays his deep love of the wilderness and nature, and the lessons he has taken from the outdoors. These lessons, whilst useful for medical practice, transcend medicine. His stories are funny and engaging and show a side of medicine rarely talked about!

He discusses lions, ships, dental procedures, meningitis and much more in this fast-paced talk. In this presentation, Ross shares trials and tribulations and draws on experiences from wilderness rescue, and expeditions around the world, which provide lessons for wilderness medics.

Evidently, we can translate these lessons into practicing better acute and critical care medicine in our day-to-day settings.

Lessons from Wilderness Medicine: Ross Hofmeyr

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