World Extreme Medicine

World Extreme Medicine 🌎 Certified B Corp™

The world’s leading provider of education, conferences, consultancy, & medical cover in extreme medicine.

Every year we help thousands of medical & healthcare workers push the boundaries of their abilities & enable them to thrive & deliver in remote, & hostile environments. Born out of a campfire discussion in the Namib Desert, with one aim – to bring the most adventurous medical training to healthcare workers. Over 20 years later, we have grown to provide a range of services that have supported humanitarian agencies, charities, government organisations, and film & TV networks around the globe. All while staying true to our adventurous roots. It’s our mission to continue to widen the access to extreme medicine, by providing the best experiences and training so you can unlock new opportunities to positively impact individuals and communities. Your clinical skillset could become your passport to a life of adventure. Join us on the side of a mountain or deep in the rainforest and start pushing boundaries on what you thought was possible.

What does medicine look like when the environment starts to dictate your decisions?Our Mountain Medicine course in Nepal...
30/03/2026

What does medicine look like when the environment starts to dictate your decisions?

Our Mountain Medicine course in Nepal is designed to take core clinical skills and apply them in a high-altitude, expedition setting, where oxygen, terrain, and limited resources all influence how you assess and manage patients.

Over 17 days on the Everest Base Camp route, you’ll develop the ability to:

‣ Recognise and manage altitude illness, including AMS, HACE, and HAPE, as symptoms evolve in real time

‣ Adapt your clinical decision-making under pressure, with limited diagnostics and delayed evacuation options

‣ Plan and deliver expedition medical care, from pre-expedition strategy through to casevac considerations

‣ Manage trauma and illness without infrastructure, using practical, improvised approaches

‣ Understand how fatigue, environment, and team dynamics impact performance and outcomes

‣ Develop situational awareness in complex, unpredictable environments

This is practical, field-based learning, delivered where these challenges actually exist.

It’s particularly suited to healthcare professionals and students looking to build confidence operating in remote, expedition, or resource-limited settings, and to take their understanding of medicine beyond the clinical environment.

đź“Ť Mountain Medicine, Nepal
🏔 Everest Base Camp route
đź©ş 24 CPD hours awarded

Find out more & secure your place: https://worldextrememedicine.com/extreme-medicine-courses/mountain-medicine-course-nepal/

A little throwback to last year’s Expedition Medicine in Practice course in Bosnia 🇧🇦Long days in the mountains, unpredi...
28/03/2026

A little throwback to last year’s Expedition Medicine in Practice course in Bosnia 🇧🇦

Long days in the mountains, unpredictable conditions, and a lot of “okay… what would you actually do here?”

This is where things start to click, taking what you know and applying it when the environment isn’t making it easy.

If you’ve done Expedition & Wilderness Medicine and you’re ready for the next step… this is it.

đź“Ť Bosnia & Herzegovina
đź“… 4th - 10th July 2026

Find out more here: https://worldextrememedicine.com/extreme-medicine-courses/expedition-medicine-in-practice-course/

What happens to the human body when gravity disappears?From fluid shifts and muscle loss to the psychological strain of ...
27/03/2026

What happens to the human body when gravity disappears?

From fluid shifts and muscle loss to the psychological strain of isolation, space pushes medicine into completely new territory. But what makes it so relevant isn’t just the environment, it’s what it teaches us about delivering care when evacuation isn’t possible, resources are limited, and every decision carries weight.

Our Space Medicine Course at Muncaster Castle brings together astronauts, clinicians, engineers, and explorers to explore how medicine is practised beyond Earth, and how those lessons translate back to remote and extreme environments here on Earth.

Taking place 1st - 4th June 2026 in Cumbria, this is a rare opportunity to step into a field that’s shaping the future of medicine.

If it’s been on your radar, now’s the time to explore it!

Find out more and secure your place: https://worldextrememedicine.com/extreme-medicine-courses/space-medicine-course/

WEMFund had a medical supply warehouse in Kherson, Ukraine. It was destroyed by missiles.It was stocked with supplies fo...
27/03/2026

WEMFund had a medical supply warehouse in Kherson, Ukraine. It was destroyed by missiles.

It was stocked with supplies for civilians, bandages, medications, equipment, shared with other aid organisations working in the city. Gone in a single strike.

The co-founders Mark Hannaford and Luca Alfatti have both spent a lot of time in Ukraine and Kherson. Mark visited a children's playground there that had been hit by a drone strike. The blue slide was still standing. Everything around it was burnt to ash.

Kherson sits less than two kilometres from Russian-held territory. It is shelled every single day. Not the front line, the city. The streets where people shop, walk, and try to live normally. Maternity hospitals have been struck. Ambulances have been targeted. And now children's playgrounds.

This is not the fog of war. This is deliberate.

The same pattern is visible in Gaza and Lebanon. The targeting of the places where civilians feel safe is not an accident, it is a strategy. And it is a undeniably war crime.

So what do we do? We go back. We train Ukrainians to save lives. We build capability so that when the worst happens, and it will happen, there are people who know what to do.

Right now the WEMFund is running surgical training courses inside Ukraine. We are teaching maxillofacial surgery, complex head and neck trauma, because drone strikes are making those injuries the most common on the battlefield. We are training medics to keep casualties alive for hours or days without evacuation, because evacuation is often impossible.

We lost a warehouse. We are still there.

If you want to support the work find us at https://www.wemfund.com.
Every contribution goes directly to training and equipment on the ground.

From building shelters and managing cold exposure, to patient care in freezing conditions and working alongside real res...
25/03/2026

From building shelters and managing cold exposure, to patient care in freezing conditions and working alongside real rescue teams, this is where clinical decision-making gets tested properly.

The Winter Medicine course may be over for 2026, but the learning doesn’t stop there.

If this is your kind of environment, the next step is already waiting for you.

Our Expedition & Wilderness Medicine course in New Hampshire (October 2026) builds on these same principles, taking your skills into broader remote and resource-limited settings.

Join us in the field: https://worldextrememedicine.com/extreme-medicine-courses/expedition-and-wilderness-medicine-course-new-hampshire/

After months of behind-the-scenes work… it’s finally here.Space Medicine at Muncaster Castle is now OPEN for bookings 🚀J...
24/03/2026

After months of behind-the-scenes work… it’s finally here.

Space Medicine at Muncaster Castle is now OPEN for bookings 🚀

Join us 1st - 4th June 2026 and step into the world of human performance, physiology, and medicine beyond Earth.

If you’ve been waiting for this one… now’s your moment.

Secure your place: https://worldextrememedicine.com/extreme-medicine-courses/space-medicine-course/

Set in the Chamonix Valley beneath Mont Blanc, this Alpine Medicine course puts you right into the kind of environments ...
21/03/2026

Set in the Chamonix Valley beneath Mont Blanc, this Alpine Medicine course puts you right into the kind of environments where clinical decisions aren’t straightforward and conditions rarely sit still.

Across five days, you’ll work through crevasse rescue, cold injuries, altitude illness, and trauma in technical terrain, building the judgement and practical skills needed to operate safely in the mountains.

If you’re looking to take your expedition medicine experience into a more technical alpine setting, this is where it starts.

September 2026 is now open, secure your place: https://worldextrememedicine.com/extreme-medicine-courses/alpine-medicine-course-chamonix/

If you’ve been thinking about joining the Expedition & Wilderness Medicine course, here’s a look at where it could take ...
19/03/2026

If you’ve been thinking about joining the Expedition & Wilderness Medicine course, here’s a look at where it could take you in 2026.

From the mountains of Wales to Slovenia, the USA, and Australia, each location offers a different environment to learn, practise, and apply your skills in real-world settings.

Wherever you choose, the focus stays the same, building confidence in managing patients when resources are limited, support is distant, and decisions matter.

If one of these locations has been on your radar, now’s a good time to take a closer look.

View the full course schedule and find your course: https://worldextrememedicine.com/product-category/extreme-medicine-courses/expedition-wilderness-medicine/

What keeps people going when medicine, resources, and certainty fall away?In this episode of the World Extreme Medicine ...
17/03/2026

What keeps people going when medicine, resources, and certainty fall away?

In this episode of the World Extreme Medicine podcast, Eoin Walker speaks with Clare O’Brien, a nurse whose career spans over 30 years across the NHS and humanitarian crises worldwide.

From Ebola in Sierra Leone to cholera outbreaks in South Sudan, Clare reflects on leadership in extreme environments, the power of community-led healthcare, and why hope can be as important as treatment itself.

This is an honest, thoughtful conversation about:
• Working in conflict and crisis zones
• Ethical challenges in global healthcare
• Resilience, leadership, and adaptability
• Finding purpose beyond the frontline

🎧 Listen to the full episode online:
https://worldextrememedicine.com/extreme-medicine-podcast/

We’ll be pausing the podcast for a short while, but recorded sessions, talks, and on-demand content will remain available to explore in the meantime.

“Is there a doctor on board?”It’s a question many healthcare professionals hope they’ll never hear mid-flight.Over the y...
15/03/2026

“Is there a doctor on board?”

It’s a question many healthcare professionals hope they’ll never hear mid-flight.

Over the years, Will Duffin has responded to a few situations while travelling.
Everything from a five-year-old with a pea stuck up her nose to full-blown anaphylaxis at 35,000 feet.

But it wasn’t until speaking with other Extreme Medicine colleagues that he realised just how varied in-flight medical emergencies can be.

Some cases were the ones you might expect, such as simple faints. But colleagues also shared stories of managing seizures, patella dislocations, acute psychosis, cardiac-type chest pain, suspected pulmonary embolisms, and even a ventricular fibrillation arrest in an airport.

In that particular case, the passenger achieved ROSC… sat up… and asked if they could still run for their connecting flight.

And then there’s the environment itself...

Sometimes clinicians find themselves surrounded by multiple healthcare professionals stepping forward to help. Other times they’re the only person responding to the situation.

Add in the realities of aviation: airline staff asking for medical ID, forms being handed over to sign mid-incident, medical kits that vary wildly between airlines, and the ethical tension of being three plastic cups of Shiraz in and technically “off duty” at cruising altitude.

What becomes clear very quickly is that no two in-flight emergencies are ever the same. There’s no textbook scenario. Just adaptability, judgement, and creative thinking.

Will Duffin will be exploring this topic further at the World Extreme Medicine Conference 2026, joining a panel discussion alongside David Fairbanks, Sarah Spelsberg, Adam Gent, and Daniel Olaiya.

Together they’ll be sharing real stories, insights, and lessons from medicine at 35,000 feet.

Have you ever heard the words “Is there a doctor on board?” while travelling?
We’d love to hear your story in the comments.

Find out more about the World Extreme Medicine Conference 2026 and grab your ticket here:
https://worldextrememedicine.com/world-extreme-medicine-conference/

Could you manage a casualty at sea?Delivering medical care in maritime environments presents challenges you simply don’t...
14/03/2026

Could you manage a casualty at sea?

Delivering medical care in maritime environments presents challenges you simply don’t encounter on land.

Movement, weather, confined spaces, and limited resources all change how decisions are made.

Our Ocean Medicine Course in Brixham (25th - 28th May 2026) explores how medicine works when the environment is unpredictable and the water is never still.

Across four days on the South Devon coast, you’ll take part in practical workshops, on-water scenarios, and realistic simulations designed to build confidence in maritime and coastal environments.

→ 28.5 CPD hours awarded by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Join us in Brixham and expand your clinical practice beyond the shoreline.

Find out more and secure your place: https://worldextrememedicine.com/extreme-medicine-courses/ocean-medicine-course/

Our Space Medicine course is preparing for launch.We’re currently finalising the dates for the 2026 Space Medicine Cours...
13/03/2026

Our Space Medicine course is preparing for launch.

We’re currently finalising the dates for the 2026 Space Medicine Course at Muncaster Castle, and bookings will be opening very soon.

The course explores the medical challenges of human spaceflight and the extreme environments that push the limits of physiology and decision-making. From microgravity to operational medicine, it’s designed for clinicians interested in the future of medicine beyond Earth.

If you’d like to hear about the course release before anyone else, you can register your interest via the course page and we’ll email you as soon as bookings go live.

Register your interest here: https://worldextrememedicine.com/extreme-medicine-courses/space-medicine-course/

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World Extreme Medicine, formerly known as 'Expedition & Wilderness Medicine'​, is the leading provider of expedition, wilderness and remote medicine training courses for medical professionals, both here in the UK and also in a number of carefully selected overseas locations.

WEM organises the renowned World Extreme Medicine Conference; showcasing all the latest in remote medicine and where inspiring medical minds meet, share experiences & promote cross-disciplinary working.

Partnered with the University of Exeter WEM is proud to offer the world’s most Extreme International Diploma/ MSc in Extreme Medicine encompassing Expedition Medicine, Disaster & Humanitarian Medicine and Pre-Hospital care. The MOST adventurous degree in the universe!

WEM also provides event medical support and its customers have included the BBC, ITV2, Ginger Productions and the Commonwealth Games to name but a few.