The International Commission for Alpine Rescue (IKAR) is located in Switzerland and is a working group of the national mountain rescue organizations. President is at present Gerold Biner.
IKAR is divided into four commissions:
- Terrestrial rescue
- Air rescue
- Avalanches
- Mountain Emergency Medicine, ICAR MEDCOM
The International Commission for Mountain Emergency Medicine ICAR MEDCOM was founded in 1948 by the Alpine countries as a sub-commission of the International Commission for Mountain Rescue (IKAR-CISA) with the aim to improve medical treatment of casualties in the mountains. President is at present Dr. Fidel Elsensohn. To date ICAR MEDCOM has a membership of 90 active emergency physicians, working in mountainous areas, representing more than 35 organizations from all continents. The main goal of the Committee is the elaboration of recommendations and guidelines dealing with scientific and practical aspects of mountain rescue and emergency treatment of casualties in mountainous terrain. The papers are intended for emergency physicians, paramedics and first responders. All our recommendations and guidelines are published in international peer reviewed journals. Moreover, preventive recommendations for mountaineers are worked out in collaboration with the Medical Commission of UIAA (The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation).
The commission is also involved in education and training of mountain rescuers and physicians in countries with efforts of establishing a system of local rescue groups and a demand of knowledge and training. Up to now, we supported courses in Argentina (2005) and Nepal (2009) with human and financial resources.
In cooperation with UIAA MEDCOM and ISMM (International Society for Mountain Medicine) ICAR MEDCOM has established the "Diploma for Mountain Medicine" and the "Diploma for Mountain Emergency Medicine" in order to standardize postgraduate medical training for physicians interested and/or involved in mountain medicine and rescue medicine in mountainous areas. The commission meets twice a year at the spring meeting (on invitation of our members) and at the general assembly of IKAR-CISA where we present our work to the other commissions. Additionally, members are invited to many national and international congresses to give lectures and present their scientific work.
Famous quotes containing the words commission, alpine and/or rescue:
“Children cannot eat rhetoric and they cannot be sheltered by commissions. I don’t want to see another commission that studies the needs of kids. We need to help them.”
—Marian Wright Edelman (b. 1939)
“Reason now gazes above the realm of the dark but warm feelings as the Alpine peaks do above the clouds. They behold the sun more clearly and distinctly, but they are cold and unfruitful.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“To rescue our children we will have to let them save us from the power we embody: we will have to trust the very difference that they forever personify. And we will have to allow them the choice, without fear of death: that they may come and do likewise or that they may come and that we will follow them, that a little child will lead us back to the child we will always be, vulnerable and wanting and hurting for love and for beauty.”
—June Jordan (b. 1939)