In October 2020, ACP was pleased to deliver our first fully online and interactive paramedic conference. The conference attracted over 1100 attendees, 60 speakers and 36 sessions.

Presented by: Steve "Sunny" Whitfield

Humans have been pushing the boundaries of extreme environment exploration since the beginning of time, and where people go, medicine must follow. Nothing speaks to the embodiment of “extreme environment medicine” more than space, and the adaptive nature of paramedics to work under dynamic and extreme circumstance well places the profession to impact the development of space medicine in the future. This presentation briefly discusses the challenges of the application process from a paramedic perspective, the benefits of dual skills, and the challenges of working as a paramedic crew medical officer in an extreme environment such as future Mars missions.

Biography:

Steve Whitfield is a lecturer at Griffith University School of Medicine (paramedicine) who has experience in providing health care in remote and extreme environments including humanitarian operations, high altitude expedition medicine, and flight retrieval. In 2019, Steve was appointed the crew medical officer of a Mars Mission simulation in the remote deserts of Utah. In his spare time Steve is a keen geographer, climber, surfer, and writer.