Our
History
WMS
Footprints: past, present, and future
Jonna Barry and Blair Erb, MD
2003 is the 20th anniversary of the Wilderness Medical Society.
Contemplating the future when the past has been so productive
is exciting. We invite you learn more about the Society,
its founders, its programs, and its goals. We hope you will
join us this summer at the 4th World Congress on Wilderness
Medicine, Wilderness Medicine in the New Century, in Whistler,
British Columbia, Canada, August 9th – 13th. Help
us celebrate our 20th Anniversary and take part in our most
timely and topical conference ever.
The Beginning
The Wilderness Medical Society (WMS) was conceived by three
California physicians: Paul Auerbach, Ed Geehr, and Ken
Kizer. Their efforts to institute sound principles of medical
practice in wilderness settings led to the formal incorporation
of the WMS on February 15, 1983, as a nonprofit mutual benefit
corporation in California. Its specific purpose was "to
encourage, foster, support, and conduct activities or programs
concerned with life sciences which may improve the scientific
knowledge of the membership and the general public in matters
related to wilderness environments and human activities
in these environments." The founders moved quickly
to develop a framework for accomplishing the Society's goals
and identified its areas of focus: administration, curriculum
content, meetings, and publications.
After ten-year's work and re-incorporation, the Society's
by-laws were revised in 2000. WMS received the IRS Tax designation
501 (c) 3, classifying our Society as a "public charity
for public good," which implies service beyond its
membership, and opening the door for tax deductible donations.
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Administration
Originally based in Mill Valley, California, in first president
Ed Geehr's home, the fledgling Society recruited volunteers
for administration. Janet Geehr served as secretary to the
Society. Suzanne Kizer provided part-time secretarial support,
and handled correspondence generated by an article about
the WMS concept in the news section of Journal of the American
Medical Association. Dian Simpkins became the first employee,
a part-time secretary, and dealt with all aspects of the
developing society from her home in Point Reyes Station,
California, until the Society grew to 2500 members.
In 1992, a formal link was established to the American College
of Sports Medicine for support services. Administrative
offices were moved to ACSM headquarters in Indianapolis,
and Jim Whitehead became Executive Director with Dian Simpkins'
support. Subsequently, WMS reincorporated in Colorado and
moved its headquarters to Colorado Springs in 1998.
In July 2005, WMS moved its business office to Allen
Marketing and Management, a division of Wilderness &
Environmental Medicine journal's long-time publisher, Allen
Press, located in Lawrence, Kansas.
The WMS administrative office is now in Salt Lake City and the Interim Director is Loren Greenway. Managing Editor Jonna Barry's Editorial Office remains in
Colorado Springs.
Curriculum Content
Building on their original ideas, early leaders in the Society
developed a needs assessment questionnaire to identify areas
of interest. The results remain pillars of the program and
include hazards of environmental exposure such as heat and
cold injury, altitude illness, hyperbaric medicine, and
trauma in the wilderness, hazardous marine life, mammalian
bites, venomous bites and stings, survival techniques, search
and rescue, resuscitation; infectious diseases associated
with travel; medical fitness and nutrition for wilderness
activities; and expedition medical planning. These topics
have guided curriculum content for WMS educational efforts
that include a minimum list of course topics for Wilderness
First Responder.
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Emphasis
has been on credibility of its educational programs. After
receiving provisional accreditation in 1984, WMS received
full accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Continuing
Medical Education in 1990. The Society has been re-accredited
every four years since then. Excellence in programming has
remained a key feature of WMS educational efforts.
Meetings
The first Annual Meeting was held November 1 – 4,
1984, at the Yosemite Lodge in Yosemite National Park. Seventy-two
people from fourteen states attended. Since then, the Society
has held its Annual Meeting and other conferences at such
places as Grand Tetons, Wyoming; Big Sky, Montana; Keystone,
Colorado; Stratton Mountain, Vermont; Snowbird, Utah; Lake
Placid, New York; Kananaskis, Canada; Park City, Utah; and
Snowmass, Colorado.
Topic-specific meetings began in 1991 with "Winter Wilderness
Medicine" at Crested Butte, Colorado. Since then, specialty
meetings have developed in travel medicine, desert medicine,
and dive medicine. With that first winter meeting, the Society
began inviting premier speakers. Geoff Somers, English navigator
for the 1990 Trans-Antarctica 4000-mile cross-country ski
expedition, was the first keynote speaker. Others since
then have included esteemed experts in their fields. A partial
list reads like a "Who's Who" of the outdoor community:
Eric Simonson, the late Alex Lowe, Gordon Wiltse, Royal
Robins, Bradford Washburn, the late Galen Rowell, the late
Barry Bishop, Peter Hackett, Tom Hornbein, and Jim Whittaker.
World Congress
Wilderness knows no national boundaries. Under the leadership
of Blair Erb, the Society began its program of quadrennial
World Congresses to review wilderness medicine in all parts
of the world.
In
1991, the 1st World Congress was held in Whistler, British
Columbia, Canada, and attracted 531 participants from eighteen
countries, twice the size of any previous meeting. It set
the stage for cooperation among other related organizations
from around the world. Cooperative alliances were formed
with international groups, such as the International Society
of Mountain Medicine, the International Society of Travel
Medicine, and the International Commission for Alpine Rescue.
The 2nd World Congress, held in Aspen, Colorado, in 1995,
recognized Franz Berghold, founder of the Austrian Society
for Alpine and High Altitude Medicine, for his international
work, by awarding him the World Congress Award.
In 1999, at the 3rd World Congress, again at Whistler and
attended by 570 participants from twenty-seven countries,
Bruno Durrer, mountain rescue leader in Switzerland, was
recognized with the World Congress Award.
The 4th World Congress on Wilderness Medicine, "Wilderness
Medicine in the New Century," will be held August 9
- 13, 2003, in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Chairs
Peter Hackett, Paul Auerbach, Blair Erb, Robert Schoene,
Eric Johnson, Sheryl Olson, and Linda Lindsey have planned
superlative lectures, many small group sessions, and a number
of workshops including very special pre-conference workshops.
The "Conference" area of this website contains
more information about this world class program!
The
5th World
Congress, Mountain and Wilderness Medicine, will be held
October 3-7, 2007 in Aviemore, Scotland. Stay tuned for
more information about how to register early for this
exceptional World Congress.
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Publications
The written word was a critically important communications
instrument early in the Society's history. Wilderness
Medicine, the official newsletter of WMS, made its
debut in January 1984, and has been published quarterly
since then. The newsletter has been edited by Ed Geehr (1984
– 1986), Howard Backer (1986 – 1991), Eric Weiss
(1991 – 1994), and Karl Neumann (1994 – 2002).
Position statements regarding wilderness medicine practice
were completed under the editorship of Ken Iserson in 1987.
A second edition was completed in 1990. The position statements
eventually evolved into a WMS publication, Wilderness
Medical Society Practice Guidelines for Wilderness Emergency
Care, edited and revised
by WMS Secretary and Past-President, Bill Forgey. The 5th
edition of Practice Guidelines will be available in August
2007.
Thanks to the untiring efforts of Paul Auerbach, the Journal
of Wilderness Medicine became a reality in 1987, published
by Chapman and Hall, Ltd. Under the editorial leadership
of Bill Robinson (1995 through 2000), the Journal took on
a new name, Wilderness & Environmental Medicine
(WEM), moved to a new publisher, Allen Press, and in 1999
was indexed in Index Medicus (MEDLINE), Current Contents,
and Excerpta Medica (Embase). Bob Norris is the current
WEM Editor-in-Chief. The current issue of the Journal is
available online at
www.wemjournal.org to WMS members.
The Journal's archives are available to
everyone regardless of membership.
The development of an educational lecture slide series began in
1990 under the guidance of Bill Robinson, Ken Zafren, and
Peter Hackett. The lectures covered a variety of wilderness
medicine topics, and were written by doctors for doctors,
medical students, and other health professionals. During 2000 and 2001, under the guidance of Editors
Luanne Freer and David Townes, the series was revised
and formatted into PowerPoint™
presentations. The current editor, Brad Bennett, is in the
process completing the 2nd edition of the original 11 topics
and developing 8 new topics for 2007.
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Today
The Wilderness Medical Society maintains its commitment to
Education, Research, and Fellowship. Our meetings are fun
as well as informative. Awards and grants programs are better
than ever. Abstract presentations at the annual meetings enjoy
a yearly increase. Student Interest Groups (SIGs) are the
fastest growing segment of our membership. In the fall of
2002, SIGs boasted seventy-one full-fledged groups and numerous
pending groups. Our journal, Wilderness & Environmental
Medicine, is available online; the first issue of 2003
unveiled a four-color cover. The Society's website, www.wms.org,
is being redesigned to make it visually fresh and exciting
as well as easier to navigate. Wilderness Medicine, the newsletter,
received a 2003 makeover: four-color cover-to-cover, more
photos, more news, and a wider variety of articles. The website
will continue to offer a members' directory, conference schedules
and registration, a web store, instructions for authors, and
a link to the online Journal. In the future . . . much more.
Every year the Society’s programs expand and new
goals are set. Our remarkable growth and strategic planning
instill pride and enthusiasm from the founding board to our
most recent associates—all of whom have combined their
professional commitment with their love of the outdoors.
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