Remote Medicine for the advanced provider

[meaux]

http://www.remotemedical.com/wilderness-medicine-training/Remote-Medicine-for-the-Advanced-Provider-RMAP

 

Has anyone here on the forum done this course who know someone who has? It looks pretty awesome (if you like being in the woods). My one concern are the CME hours. Im not sure if the approved for 40.25 hours of credit toward becoming a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine (FAWM). equates to Cat I CME. certainly Cat II though.

[EMEDPA]

Contrarian did it a few years ago. it is on my radar to do at some point.

[Just Steve]

I really think classes such as this one will be a HUGE asset when your area succumbs to a natural disaster. I believe it will be money well spent.

[ToppDog]

This kind of stuff really interests me.

[MediMike]

I had a fellow medic go through it, unfortunately he's a new graduate so I don't really see it benefiting him too much, by the time he has the experience to take a remote job the knowledge will be gone...Anyways sounds like they covered a fair amount of abx treatment, fracture/dislocation reduction, and just plain resourcefulness. His description of the field work sounded pretty hilarious, out in the woods in the dark with a screaming patient who was pretty much going to die no matter what you did. He did thoroughly enjoy it, and from others I've talked to it would be a great addition to an experienced providers skill/knowledge base.

[Contrarian]

It was decent... No earth shattering, practice changing knowledge or skillz dissiminated/taught at Diablo.

 

Its "usefulness" was in stimulating the "think outside the box to solve a problem and take care of your patient sort" of thing...

 

Otherwise... it was mostly "clown-shoes" for me as a former Army Medic/Paramedic/CCRN and Current PA-C.

 

I took this course because:

 

1.) It was close (less than 100miles from my front door)

 

2.) I was already practicing medicine in austere environments and felt I needed some paper validation to send to potential international employers who were used to the certificates and certs that the Brits/Aussies/Kiwis get. As I had already worked a Job where the decision makers thought that Aussie/Brit/Kiwi EMTs were MORE qualified than American Acute Care/FP PA-Cs and/or US EMT-Ps in the bush. Simply because the Aussie/Brit/Kiwi EMTs around had a piece of paper that had the word "REMOTE" on it.

 

3) I had applied for and was offered the Antartica Job (Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station) and was seriously considering it. Didn't accept it because they wanted me to leave on toooooooo short a notice (2 weeks from thae day they actually offered it).... to be stranded there as the sole provider for toooooo many (6) continuous months.

 

 

 

In 1999, the winter-over physician, Dr. Jerri Nielsen, found that she had breast cancer. She had to rely on self-administered chemotherapy using supplies from a daring July cargo drop, then was picked up in an equally dangerous mid-October landing.

 

On May 11, 2000 astrophysicist Dr. Rodney Marks became ill while walking between the remote observatory and the base. He became increasingly sick over 36 hours, three times returning increasingly distressed to the station's doctor. Advice was sought by satellite, but Dr Marks died on May 12, 2000 with his condition undiagnosed.^[15][16] The National Science Foundation issued a statement that Rodney Marks had "apparently died of natural causes, but the specific cause of death ha[d] yet to be determined".^[17] The exact cause of Marks' death could not be determined until his body was removed from Amundsen-Scott Station and flown off Antarctica for an autopsy.^[18] Marks' death was due to methanol poisoning, and the case received media attention as the "first South Pole murder",^[19] although there is no evidence that Marks died as the result of the act of another person.^[20]

In January 2007 the station was visited by a group of high-level Russian officials, including FSB chiefs Nikolay Patrushev and Vladimir Pronichev. The expedition, led by polar explorer Artur Chilingarov, started from Chile on two Mi-8 helicopters and landed at the South Pole.^[21][22]

On September 6, 2007, The National Geographic Channel's TV show Man Made aired an episode on the construction of their new facility.^[23]

On November 9, 2007 edition of NBC's Today (NBC program), Today show co-anchor Ann Curry made a satellite telephone call which was broadcast live from the South Pole.^[24]

On Christmas 2007, two employees at the base got into a drunken fight and had to be evacuated.^[25]

On July 11, 2011 the winterover communications technician fell ill and was diagnosed with appendicitis. An emergency open appendectomy was performed by the station doctors with several winterovers assisting during the surgery.

 

During the 2011 winterover season, station manager Renee-Nicole Douceur experienced a stroke on August 27, resulting in loss of vision and cognitive function. Because the Amundsen-Scott base lacks diagnostic medical equipment such as an MRI or CT scan machine, station doctors were unable to fully evaluate the damage done by the stroke or the chance of recurrence. Physicians on site recommended a medevac flight as soon as possible for Douceur, but offsite doctors hired by Raytheon Polar Services (the company contracted to run the base) and the National Science Foundation disagreed with the severity of the situation. The National Science Foundation, which is the final authority on all flights and assumes all financial responsibility for the flights, denied the request for medevac saying the weather was still too hazardous.^[26] Plans were made to evacuate Douceur on the first flight available. Douceur and her niece, believing Douceur's condition to be grave and believing an earlier medevac flight possible, contacted Senator Jeanne Shaheen for assistance; as the NSF continued to state Douceur's condition did not qualify for a medevac attempt and conditions at the base would not permit an earlier flight, Douceur and her supporters brought the situation to media attention.^[27][28]

Douceur was evacuated, along with a doctor and an escort, on an October 17 cargo flight. This was the first flight available when the weather window opened up on October 16. This first flight is usually solely for supply and refueling of the station, and does not customarily accept passengers, as the plane's cabin is unpressurized.^{[29] [30]} The evacuation was successful, and Douceur arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand, at 4:55 a.m. ET.^[31]