I was humbled to be invited to speak at the annual ExpedMed National Wilderness Medical Conference in DC, established by Greg Bledsoe, MD, Tusker’s consulting physician. Once a year, leading experts in Wilderness Medicine gather at this conference to share research, and new developments in their fields, including High Altitude Medicine . These docs, rockstars in their disciplines, extended me the honor of an invitation. My field experience, as it turns out, is of value to their research.
I have much respect for them. They are world-class experts, heavy hitters all, and many use Tusker climbs to fulfill their CME (Continuing Medical Education).
They include Michael Callahan, MD, Program Manager for Biodefense and Mass Casualty Care at DARPA in Maryland; Timothy Erickson, MD, Professor of Emergency Medicine and Director of the Chicago Center for Global Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago; David Townes, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, in the Division of Emergency Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle; and of course, Greg Bledsoe, MD, an Emergency Physician and CEO of ExpedMed, an expedition and wilderness medicine education company that provides “best of service” educational opportunities for medical professionals.
At these conferences, I always learn something new related to mountain safety.
Our shared knowledge allows us to fine-tune the high altitude safety protocols that give Tusker its outstanding safety record, and reputation. Most recently, by re-calibrating Tusker’s Diamox protocol, our climbers have been acclimatizing much more efficiently, and thus, many more are summiting with fewer symptoms.
To all you docs at ExpedMed – asante.
I don’t think there’s a word in Swahili for it, but here’s a cosmic shout-out to astrophysicist Laurance Doyle, PhD, a Principal Investigator at the SETI INSTITUTE, who’s been a pal ever since the late ‘70s, when we scouted ancient archaeological rock circles at Namoratunga in northern Kenya.
Laurance led the study that just discovered a new planet, Kepler-16b, which in a turn straight out of STAR WARS, orbits two suns! Here’s an interview of Laurance on MSNBC.COM.
He’ll be leading our Solar Eclipse Trip in Australia in November 2012.
His groundbreaking research aside (marine mammal linguistics!), Laurance has a real gift for analogy. He once equated the Apollo moonshot to the improbability of a snail crossing the street and mounting the hubcap of a car speeding by at 60 mph! His descriptions of infinity using playing cards (what exists beyond the edge of Space?), and four dimensions using a laundry closet (can you even imagine it?) reveal his gift for reducing (if that’s the right word) the most complex scientific concepts into the mundane … for morons like me.
As they say in Cajun, lache pas la patat … don’t drop the potato, or in my world, keep your eyes on the summit.
