Dr Ella Bennett / Anaesthetic registrar / Edinburgh
As winter took hold in Edinburgh, the Adventure Medic team descended on the city for the 2025 World Extreme Medicine Conference. We were there all weekend, meeting medical professionals from across the world, sharing experiences of the challenges and triumphs of expedition, humanitarian and wilderness medicine.
What is it?
The annual World Extreme Medicine (WEM) conference is a three-day event that welcomes attendees from a huge range of backgrounds within the world of extreme medicine. It prides itself on diversity – both professional and experiential – and in recent years, has focussed as much on practical workshops as the traditional conference lectures. WEM takes place in the shadow of Edinburgh’s spectacular Salisbury Crags, at Dynamic Earth, the city’s science centre. It is an opportunity to network, learn new skills, participate in panel debates and of course, dance your socks off at the legendary ceilidh.
Conference Highlights
This year’s WEM was a celebration of community, diversity and non-traditional medicine. The Adventure Medic (AM) team were privileged to attend a wide range of workshops – from burns management and rope rescue to cold-water submersion, all in authentically freezing Scottish weather. We listened to keynote speakers who brought their dogs, attended discussions on sleep and self-care, and participated in many animated panel discussions. Below are the AM team’s speaker highlights from this year – a list difficult to narrow down, but will give the reader a taste of the essence of WEM.
Blood Polar: When the Period Hits, Be Ready
Dr Noemi Welsch
Dr Welsch is a resident doctor in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She discussed her own experiences of the ‘bloody mess’ of menstruating on expedition, and her subsequent motivation to foster discussion and curiosity around women’s health in extreme environments. Her talk was structured around case studies from her expedition work and sparked a lively discourse on planning for menstruation, contraception and perimenopausal participants. She covered a huge breadth of topics including missed pills due to time-zone changes, storage of contraception at extremes of temperature, sourcing sustainable period kit and communication around female urination.
Dr Welsch expertly led a refreshingly candid discussion, lending her expertise and practical tips to a packed room of experienced and novice practitioners alike. For more from Dr Welsch, check out her article on working with the Floating Doctors in Bocas Del Toro here and look out for her upcoming article due to be published as part of our new Women’s Health Series.
Asylum Seeker & Refugee Health in the UK
Dr Aisha Malik
Dr Malik is a GP with Extended Role in asylum seeker and refugee health based in Blackpool. She gave a passionate and harrowing insight into working as clinical lead for the Blackpool Metropole Hotel. This hotel housed 468 asylum seekers during the pandemic, a number which included 200 under 18s and 30 pregnant women, despite legal limits being set at 10. She spoke of the pitifully small allowances provided by the government as just one dimension of what she described as ‘state-sponsored neglect’. A lifelong advocate for equality, Dr Malik reflected on the concept of ‘medicalising misery’ and the challenges of navigating an increasingly dispassionate immigration system. She has clearly found her calling, describing her work in one of the most under-recognised areas of UK healthcare as “medicine and health inequality on steroids… you have to be mentally and emotionally tough, but it makes you a better doctor, and a better human.”
Breaking the Ice: Gender, Barriers and Belonging in Polar Expedition
Cat Burford
It was an absolute joy to watch Cat Burford, dentist and explorer, champion women in polar exploration. She opened by reflecting on female polar explorers going back to the 1770s, when male disguises were often a necessity, and shared a selection of memorable quotes, including the 1960s assertion that ‘women wouldn’t like the Antarctic as there are no shops or hairdressers’. Cat went on to address current challenges: the lack of female-specific equipment and research, and her own experiences of misogyny and entrenched societal expectations. Among her most frustrating recurring experiences is being asked whether she feels guilty for leaving her family or whether her husband funds her expeditions (he does not). You can find Cat’s website here or follow her on Instagram @themolarexplorer.
The WEM Community
One of the most inspirational aspects of every WEM conference is the sense of community that the event cultivates. The informal atmosphere that it is renowned for encourages discussion, integration and genuine connection. This year was no different. We met nurses, scientists, astronauts and journalists, and were reminded that whether you are completely new to medicine outside hospital environments or a seasoned expedition medic, there is always something to learn and someone new to meet.
The emphasis is on positive change, self-reliance and treading a path less travelled felt particularly resonant during a dreary November weekend. We left feeling impassioned and invigorated, with a satisfyingly long list of potential new contributors.
Thank you to everyone that came to meet us, and to all of those who offered expertise and articles – we look forward to sharing your experiences with the Adventure medic community.
Get Involved
Inspired by WEM and want to contribute? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch at contact@theadventuremedic.com
The World Extreme Medicine Conference returns to Edinburgh from 14–16 November 2026. Book your tickets here.
