Ask Stanford Med: Chief of Emergency Medicine take questions on wilderness medicine

This summer, families, nature lovers and thrill seekers will head outdoors. While many may spend hours planning camping trips, researching hiking gear or picking out the perfect sleeping bag, few are likely consider the potential health hazards that can arise on even an ordinary trip.

To help you prepare for those potential mid-adventure emergencies, the School of Medicine’s SCOPE Blog enlisted Stanford Professor Paul Auerbach, MD, to respond to your questions about safety outdoors.

An expert on wilderness medicine, Auerbach is editor of the medical textbook Wilderness Medicine and author of Medicine for the Outdoors and Field Guide to Wilderness Medicine. He was a member of the Stanford medical team that provided assistance to survivors of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, a volunteer physician at the Hospitalito Atitlan in Santiago, Guatemala, and instructor and examiner for the Nepal Ambulance Service in Kathmandu, Nepal. A founder and past president of the Wilderness Medical Society, he was named a Hero of Emergency Medicine in 2008 by the American College of Emergency Physicians.

You can submit your questions to Auerbach until Wednesday, June 13 at 5 p.m. by sending a tweet that includes the hashtag #AskSUMed or by submitting them in the comment section of Lia Steakley’s SCOPE Blog post.