Exam (elaborations) Wilderness Medicine Books:

The Best Every issue, this magazine presents book reviews of recent publications. This issue we would like to take a step back and profile the cream of the crop – the best wilderness medicine books of the past decades. These volumes are must-reads for wilderness medicine novices, unexpected gems for veterans, and worthy reads for seasoned experts. There are so many great books, we will continue to expand this list in future issues, describing the best of the best. What would make your top list? Wilderness Medicine 6th ed. Auerbach PS, ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier Mosby, 2012. Now in its 6th edition, the revered definitive wilderness medicine textbook remains the broadest and most wellrecognized text on the subject. What other wilderness medicine text covers “Space Medicine” or “Global Crimes, Incarceration and Quarantine?” Auerbach’s work tackles topics both familiar and esoteric, to build a remarkably deep and broad vision of the state of the art in wilderness medicine. Mountain Rescue Doctor: Wilderness Medicine in the Extremes of Nature. Van Tilburg C. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007. This is a remarkable book. From one of wilderness medicine’s most prolific and gifted writers, it offers an honest dissection of the benefits and challenges of pursuing a career as a wilderness medicine physician. It is requisite reading for any student who feels the pull to design a physician lifestyle around Wilderness EMS and rescue activities. Wilderness Search and Rescue. Setnicka TJ. Boston: Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), 1980. Over 30 years ago, Setnicka and his team wrote “We have attempted a kind of ‘Rescue Guide for the Compleat Idiot.’” This text predicted the outdating of the gear it described “in the near future,” and hoped that at some point thereafter SAR groups would be put out of business by a lack of demand for their services. Instead, the book remains remarkably relevant, unparalleled in its comprehensive coverage, and SAR services are more in demand than ever. For the most part, the techniques it describes are still extremely functional. What’s more, its philosophical call to arms regarding philosophical, legislative and cultural challenges to SAR could have been written yesterday, especially in the description of the divergence of rescue teams and the outdoor communities they serve, and the increasing absence of a sense of selfreliance in “victims.” Wilderness Medicine. Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America 2004;22(2). Sholl JM, Rathlev NK, Olshaker JS, eds. This quiet installment in the EM Clinics of NA series is often overlooked, but manages to simultaneously offer up-todate introductions to standard wilderness medicine topics while also offering groundbreaking discussions of topics previously lacking academic attention. Russell’s discussion in this text of “Wilderness EMS Systems” is a landmark essay, and remains one of the few academic writings addressing WEMS systems analysis. Handbook on Drowning. Bierens JJLM, ed. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2006. No other wilderness medicine topic receives such an exhaustive, international, single text treatment. A “congress book” generated by the Board of Governors of the Maatschappij tot Redding van Drenkelingen (founded in 1767), this text represents the worldwide state of the art in drowning management, as defined by the First World Congress on Drowning held in the Netherlands in 2002. Not only is this a must-read for those interested in watersports medicine and rescue, it also serves as a model for truly international collaboration and consensus establishment in other wilderness medicine subdisciplines. Into the Unknown: The Remarkable Life of Hans Kraus. Schwartz SEB. New York: iUniverse, 2005. Schwartz’s book is a fairly straightforward biography of one of the most remarkable figures in the outdoor medical world. Kraus worked in an era barely predating formal wilderness medicine, and a few generations later has been inexplicably forgotten. A legendary rock climber, he served as John F. Kennedy’s private back doctor, and Time Magazine considered him among the greatest doctors ever. This book produces new documentation on Kennedy’s death, and how the wilderness-inspired recommendations from Kraus (which Kennedy was allegedly days away from adopting) might have saved Kennedy’s life in Dallas. This climber-doctor established transformative changes to orthopedic and post-injury practice, proposed sweeping changes to the physical fitness and public health programs a Reading List (Volume I) • Seth C. Hawkins, MD Wilderness Medicine B