Wilderness medicine, providing "vital emergency care in remote settings" is a rapidly evolving field and is of increasing importance as more people engage in hiking, climbing, kayaking and other potentially hazardous activities in the backcountry. A primary focus of the field is the evaluation, prioritization (triage), preliminary treatment of acute injuries or illnesses which occur in those environments and the emergency evacuation of victims. However, back country rescue and wilderness first aid is not the sole activity of wilderness medical professionals, who are also concerned with many additional topics. These include but are not limited to:
- secondary care follow up to first aid in remote settings, such as expeditions
- evaluation of experience and issuance of updated protocols for first response and secondary care
- the prevention of wilderness medical emergencies,
- epidemiological studies,
- public policy advisement to wilderness planning agencies, issuance of guidelines to disaster planning agencies, professional guides and amateur back country enthusiast organizations.
Read more about Wilderness Medicine: Scope of Wilderness Medicine, Epidemiology, Austere Environments Interdisciplinary Interface, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words wilderness and/or medicine:
“Thou torturest me, Tubal. It was my turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor. I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“We gave ‘em wings to fly and they rained death on us. We gave ‘em a voice to be heard around the world and they preach hatred to poison the minds of nations. Even the medicine we gave them to ease their pain is turned into a vice to enslave half mankind for the profit of a few. Ah, Janet, dear, don’t you see? Every gift that science has given them has been twisted into a thing of hate and greed.”
—Karl Brown (1897–1990)