Emerging Media and Emergency Care

For 50 years Dr. Madden provided emergency care to the citizens of Wolf County. He practiced by himself, delivered babies, and applied casts. Though he took his own X-Rays, sometimes he needed an expert opinion. The patient and the X-Ray would travel by ambulance to another county, since there were no hospitals in rural Wolf County when a patient needed care he could not provide. An addition of a Web camera to his computer would connect him to the University of Kentucky, www.uky.edu and www.mc.uky.edu/medicine, for consultation. The patient profile and X-Rays can be viewed by a university expert, www.UK.edu electronically who can assist in a difficult case.

 

Kentucky and West Virginia have exciting wilderness areas. People from all over the country come to Mingo County to ride the Hatfield McCoy Trail on trail bikes and 4 wheelers. They ride rafts down the New River, ski at Snowshoe, and hike the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. Injured vacationers might stretch the local Emergency Medical service. They might seek information form Wilderness and travel Medicine, www.wilderness-medicine.com.

 

For those who do not carry pick and snowshoes up Denali or trek in Nepal, there are short films to view. The best of Telluride’s Mountainfilm Festival will inspire audiences with cross cultural experiences dedicated to inspire and educate audiences, www.mountainfilm.com. The Mountain Film on Tour captures the excitement of wilderness travel and medical hazards of extreme sports. 

 

Rural physicians, ski resorts, white water raft companies, and expeditions find injured travelers miles from help without the means of rescue. The American College of Emergency Physicians, www.acep.org, recommends Wilderness CPR and First Aid to team leaders. They offer Injury Prevention guides at www.emergencycareforyou.org.

Short films and Web sites will help train wilderness guides and help them with emergency care.