In the last 12 months, we’ve witnessed raging wildfires, an explosion in Beirut that killed nearly 200 people and a pandemic that has spread across the globe, all in addition to ongoing unrest, famine and displaced communities around the globe.

That’s why Day 2 of our conference focuses on providing you with the skills and tools to provide medicine where it’s needed most. We’ve combined our ‘Disaster and Humanitarian’ and ‘Extreme Pre-Hospital and Retrieval Medicine’ themes, usually spread over two days, into one jam-packed, totally EXTREME day of content.

Do you want to be ‘Inspired Beyond the Ordinary’? Read on to find out what Day 2 has to offer…

• WEM Trauma Lead Eoin Walker will be joined by Advanced Paramedic Jason George. Jason was one of the first on scene during the London Bridge Terror Attack in 2019, in which two people were killed, with three others left seriously wounded. Jason and Eoin will reflect on the lessons learnt serving on the frontline of medicine, reviewing the aspects of care they’ve deployed during hostile and life-threatening situations.
• GP and Blue Ventures Medical Director Vik Mohan will take to the (virtual) stage to discuss how he utilises his skills as a medic to support a variety of marine conversation projects around the globe. Originally an expedition medic supporting adventures all over the globe, Vik witnessed first-hand the importance of a holistic approach to community and health development and biodiversity conservation. In this session, he’ll explore how he integrated the health care systems in some of the world’s hardest to reach communities with a conservation mission that spans across five countries and reaches over 50,000 people.
• Karen O’Neill and Josie Gilday, WEM Faculty and incredibly experienced humanitarian medics, will kick off Day 2 of #VirtualWEM20. An Advanced Clinical Practitioner, Karen has divided her career between Emergency Department nursing in the NHS and the humanitarian sector. During the West Africa Ebola Crisis, Karen worked as a Medical Advisor the UK’s National Ebola Response Programme in Sierra Leone. She’s also used her skills onboard the Save the Children search and rescue programme operating in the Mediterranean. Josie Gilday is a consultant in humanitarian nursing with bags of experience, having spent over 5 years in the field with MSF in places including Haiti, Ivory Coast and Ethiopia. Josie specialises in managing and improving nursing workforces in humanitarian settings, ensuring the best possible standard of care in remote, under-resourced facilities and clinics.
• How would you manage the health of a severely unwell patient located hours away from you, in a cave known to only three people in the world? Alistair Morris, a Consultant Paediatrician and medic for his local Mountain Rescue Team will describe his experience tackling this near-impossible mission, serving as the doctor on scene tasked with the enormous challenge of bringing this man to safety in a rescue attempt that lasted for 17 hours. He’ll describe the challenges of providing care in one of the most remote places imaginable, in which any equipment requests would take hours to arrive.
• Do you dream of utilising your skills as a medic to bring about change in low income health systems? That’s exactly what Paramedic Nich Woolf did, pulling together a relentlessly hard-working team, a tonne of kit and a carefully devised syllabus designed to improve staff training at a hospital in northern Afghanistan. Nich developed a programme that centred around the pre-hospital essentials specific to the caseload commonly faced by medics working in Afghanistan, including resuscitation and mass casualty triage training. After three trips, Nich was able to hand the programme back to the team at the hospital, ensuring the long-term development and training of staff operating in the area. This session is aimed at anyone wanting to make a change in health care systems around the world.

Feeling ‘Inspired Beyond the Ordinary’?
Join us this year for one of the most energetic and unique networks in the universe and be part of the world’s greatest gathering in an online environment of extreme medics and thought-leaders; dedicated to inspiring and sharing medical knowledge with you. Book your place today!