​Our Purpose
We are an ad hoc group of experienced medical educators interested in providing leadership and guidance on appropriate content for wilderness medicine courses and a forum for discussing questions of course content, practice guidelines and trends and issues in wilderness medicine.

​Our goal is organized collaboration, not regulation or accreditation.

Who we are
People who live, work, travel and recreate in the outdoors have specialized medical training needs that are not adequately met by traditional first aid programs. They care for patients in remote locations, in challenging weather, with questionable communication and support, limited equipment, and may need to make independent decisions on patient care and transport. As a result, medical and outdoor specialists developed wilderness medicine courses in an attempt to meet these needs. Initially, the content for these courses was written independently and was opinion based. Subsequently, the content has evolved based on evidence and experience. The Wilderness Medicine Education Collaborative (WMEC) seeks consensus about content and scope of practice among wilderness medicine training organizations.

Our Collaborative History
A decade ago we began collegially discussing aspects of wilderness medicine and wilderness medicine education. The results of these collegial conversations have been increasing consistency in curriculum content and the writing of three documents describing minimum content for three popular wilderness medicine courses: WFA, WAFA, & WFR. We are interested in content that is practical and realistic for our students.