Mass gathering medicine · Ultra-endurance events · Expedition support
Event and expedition medicine for endurance races, mass gatherings and remote expeditions
The Paramedic Foundation (TPF) works on two related problems in event and expedition medicine. A mass gathering brings many patients in a short time. It is often held where there are no permanent emergency medical services (EMS). An expedition runs a long time, with limited resupply, evacuation and communication. TPF has worked on medical planning, protocols and operations design for both. TPF is not offering event or expedition medicine services at present. That could change for the right project.
Event and expedition medicine
Expedition medicine covers long trips and field work. Examples are remote research stations, long field projects and international expeditions. On these, resupply, evacuation and access to definitive care stay limited for a long time.
TPF’s event medicine field work has been carried out through the Ultra Medical Team (UMT), a TPF initiative. It has provided evidence-based field medical support, volunteer medical oversight, protocols and equipment standards for ultra-endurance sporting events. The Ultra Medical Team is currently paused. Ultra-endurance events, such as trail ultramarathons, adventure races and endurance cycling events, bring their own clinical picture. Runners and riders face serious environmental illness, conditions caused by exertion and long hours of intense physical stress. Patients are also spread out over terrain that a standard EMS response cannot reach.
The research side of this work sits with Ultra-Endurance Sports Science & Medicine (UESSM). It is a TPF program co-founded by Nick Nudell and Dr. Martin D. Hoffman (University of California, Davis). UESSM builds the evidence base, and the Ultra Medical Team applies it in the field. TPF provides the structure that connects the research to operations.
The same planning applies to any mass gathering where resources are few or conditions are harsh. That includes remote festivals, endurance competitions, large outdoor events and international expedition programs. TPF is not taking on this work now. It would consider the right project.
What TPF could provide for the right project
Mass gathering medical operations planning
Event medical director and oversight support
Volunteer medical team training and credentialing frameworks
Protocol development for event-specific clinical presentations
Equipment and formulary standards
Post-event medical operations evaluation and reporting
Expedition medicine consulting and pre-deployment planning
Who this work is for
Ultra-endurance race directors and event organizations
Endurance sports governing bodies
Remote and outdoor festival organizers
Research and scientific expedition programs
International nongovernmental organizations with field operations
Where event and expedition medicine sits in TPF’s work
This is one of three practice areas in TPF’s austere and operational medicine area of work. Austere care depends on what a team has on hand, wherever it is. It is the clinical and field problem that comes up when the usual EMS system is absent, overwhelmed or out of reach. That is a different problem from the fragile structure of rural and frontier EMS systems, covered on the rural health page. TPF has both skills and keeps them apart, because protocols written for one fail in the other.
Who this work is for. Event and race directors, expedition organizers, endurance sport governing bodies, and venue operators.
Talk with TPF about event or expedition medicine
TPF is not offering event or expedition medicine services at present, but that could change for the right project. If you have one in mind, a first conversation is free, with no obligation. TPF will tell you directly whether it can help.