Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and a wilderness guide service are offering the first diploma in mountain medicine in the eastern U.S., with training that will enable licensed health care workers to provide medical care in remote outdoor locations.
The Northeast Diploma in Mountain Medicine is the first of its kind east of the Rocky Mountains, and the third program to be accredited nationwide, according to DHMC. Developed by the hospital’s Division of Wilderness and Austere Medicine and Acadia Mountain Guides Climbing School in Bar Harbor, Maine, the program includes over 200 hours of hands-on instruction in mountain rescue and survival and is open to advanced care practitioners, including doctors, nurses and paramedics. “The culture of outdoor mountain recreation is alive and strong in the Northeast,” said Nicholas Daniel, DO, who directs DHMC’s wilderness and austere medicine fellowship.
“No question, the need is increasing,” said Jon Tierney, a registered nurse and head of Acadia Mountain Guides. Participation in outdoor activities soared during COVID, bringing lots of newcomers to wilderness recreation, and the volume of backcountry rescues in the White Mountains and Acadia and Baxter parks in Maine has increased, Tierney said. “This is an international program widely known in Europe,” he said.
U.S. equivalents exist in Utah and New Mexico.
He hopes it will encourage more medical professionals to join search and rescue teams. Graduates will be schooled .
