Wilderness medicine: a fellowship programme

The Fellowship of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine qualification (FAWM) was set up in 2005 by the Wilderness Medical Society based in America and currently has 640 candidates, and 176 Fellows. It provides a great opportunity to gain and demonstrate knowledge of expedition and wilderness medicine and to gain recognition for practical experience you have gained in this area. The Wilderness Medical Society also offers a number of other benefits to its members and continues to develop new services and qualifications year after year.

The Wilderness Medical Society (WMS) itself was created in 1983 by three doctors with the mission statement to ‘advance healthcare, research, and education related to wilderness medicine’. The international society has 2383 members, as of 13 August 2010 and publishes the peer-reviewed Wilderness and Environmental Medicine Journal and the more informal Wilderness Medicine Magazine.

The society is also responsible for creating and publishing the evidence based practice guidelines for wilderness emergency care. The WMS itself strives to not only embrace evidence based medicine, but also to add to the evidence base for wilderness medicine with high quality research. The WMS further supports the development of evidence based healthcare in remote environments by providing various research grants and awards for amounts varying from under US$500 up to US$7000.