Several members of the UIAA Medical Commission (MedCom) supported the recent organisation of the International Forum on Rescue in Difficult Environments, held in Genoa, Italy, from 19-21 March. Indeed, the event was organised by Luigi Festi, a UIAA MedCom member from CAI, and a tireless promoter of mountain medicine.
The forum combined a mix of lectures on rescue situations and medical challenges not only in the mountains, but also at sea, in deep water, in caves and even in space. It provided for a fascinating insight and enabled those focused on the challenges in the field of rescue medicine to tap into learnings from other areas. And viceversa.
In addition to Dr Festi, MedCom UIAA was represented by Mijel Lofti from Argentina, who gave a lecture on “Rescue in Aconcagua provincial park as a particular example in the Andes”, and George Rodway from the USA and current International Society for Mountain Medicine (ISSM) President, who presented the “Impact of climate change on human health at high altitude”. Peter Paal, a corresponding member of MedCom from Austria, discussed “Hypothermia and coagulation” and Marika Falla from the Eurac Research, presented the UIAA recommendations on Travel to Altitude with Neurological Disorders.
Round table events brought together international experts. Urs Hefti, President of the UIAA Medical Commission, took part in a discussion on the question of whether modern techniques will positively change the future of rescue and mountain medicine. The forum closed with the conclusion that on the one hand human factors will continue to play a role in the future, but modern innovations such as drones will further aid rescuers, for example in being able to conduct dangerous search flights over the sea or in bad weather in the mountains. Given its success, plans for a second edition of the forum are already underway.
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