Outdoor Medicine is a non-profit organisation fully named The Dutch Expedition & Wilderness Medical Society, founded in 2011. Its members work in different hospitals all over The Netherlands and abroad.
Aims
Outdoor Medicine aims to promote (international) cooperation between (para)medics with interest in the area of expedition medicine, wilderness medicine or practising medicine in extreme environments. Additionally, we aim to increase, stimulate, share and spread the knowledge in this area of practice and to promote ‘best medical practices’
Strategy
We reach our aims by organising workshops, lectures, courses, conferences, travels and other activities on expedition and wilderness medicine. We deliver medical know-how to expeditions, adventurous travels, extreme sports or voluntary work during preparation, on-site and by telemedicine.
The Board
Michiel van Veelen is one of the founders of Outdoor Medicine and loves to live in great places for his work. He currently works as a Researcher in Mountain Emergency Medicine in the Dolomites, and before that as a HEMS & Aeromedical Retrieval Physician for Okavango Air Rescue in Botswana. He is a fellow candidate at the Academy of Wilderness Medicine and holds a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTM&H) and a Diploma in Mountain Medicine (DiMM). He is both the course director and instructor for several courses. Michiel loves kite surfing, ski touring, alpine climbing, and mountain biking.
Anne Brants started to combine her passion for travelling with her professional education during medical school. She completed many courses abroad among which the Diploma of Mountain Medicine and she is a fellow in Wilderness Medicine. She now combines working as an emergency physician with guiding in expeditions. She worked as an expedition doctor in Arctic Norway, at Kilimanjaro, Antarctica, the Empty Quarter in Oman and Everest Basecamp. Anne played a major role in the initial medical response at Mount Everest after the earthquake in Nepal in 2015. Her mission is to educate non-medics and making sure that they are aware and prepared when going on an expedition.
Wouter Jetten is one of the founders of Outdoor Medicine. Originally trained as Emergency physician, he worked as ship’s physician in the Arctic and expedition doctor on Kilimanjaro. He also gained experience in Cameroon and the Caribbean. Wouter is the driving force behind the Dive & Marine Life Support course, which will continue in 2022. He is also one of the course directors for the AWLS course and currently exploring the possibilities for other specialized courses with partner organizations and within Outdoor Medicine itself. Wouter has a special interest in mountain & marine medicine.
Remco Berendsen works as an anaesthesiologist at Leiden University Medical Centre, focusing on (paediatric) cardiothoracic anaesthesia. As an anesthesiologist, he researches the effects of hypoxia on the human body. He holds an international diploma in mountain medicine. He is AWLS instructor and course director of both the wilderness First Aid Mountain and the Mountain Medicine course. He is co-founder of Maatschap Hoogtegeneeskunde Nederland and has been a member of the medical committee of the Dutch Climbing and Mountain Sports Association for many years. His interest therefore lies in the field of mountain medicine and in particular the effects of high mountains on physiological changes and the pathology involved. His current line of research has the theme: “How to empower the Altitude traveller?
The Team
Maybritt Kuypers is an Emergency Medicine Physician and Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine. She is one of the founders of Outdoor Medicine and AWLS course director. She feels at home everywhere on planet Earth; has worked in tropical, polar, mountain and marine environments. Her biggest passion is human spaceflight. She is currently Flight Surgeon for the European Space Agency (ESA) and supporting astronaut missions to the International Space Station and beyond…
Joost ten Brinke works as a Trauma Surgeon with previous working experience as a Tropical Medicine resident, at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam. He is a Fellow candidate at the Academy of Wilderness Medicine, Utah and AWLS instructor. In 2011 he participated in the British Expedition Medicine Course. In his time off Joost enjoys climbing in the Alps, has been on top of Mount Kilimanjaro, has been ice skating on the great lakes of Norway and is an enthusiastic beekeeper, caring for many hives
Mark Frederikse is a military emergency physician. He has worked in Emergency Departments in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Australia, but also as a Ship Physician on large American cruise ships.
Since he started scuba diving in 1991 it has been one of his passions. He completed Scuba Instructor training in 2012. Diving and travelling the world are his hobbies, and pre-hospital emergency medicine is his niche.
Marieke van Vessem is a sports medicine resident at Maxima Medisch Centrum (Veldhoven). She is a member of the medical committee of the Dutch Climbing and Mountaineering Association (NKBV) and the UIAA. Marieke is AWLS qualified and has completed the Diploma in Mountain Medicine in England. She extended her diploma with a master in Clinical Science in Mountain Medicine with her research on the long term effects of High Altitude Cerebral Edema. She instructor on the Mountain Medicine course and the Wilderness First Aid Mountain module. Furthermore, she is co-responsible for the content of the website. Marieke loves mountain biking and other outdoor adventures.
Lottie van Baal is a resident in anesthesiology, with a passion for emergency medicine and humanitarian aid. She completed the Netherlands Course on Global Health and Tropical Medicine (NTC), and has clinical experience in Surinam, Tanzania and took part in multiple projects in refugee camps. She has always been attracted to remote areas, bringing as little as possible with her in her bag, kayak or on her bike. Since Lottie started mountaineering in 2005, she spends both her summers and winters in the mountains. She has a diploma in Mountain Medicine and is an AWLS instructor since 2018.
Annemarie Wuister is one of our AWLS and DMLS instructors. She is a general practitioner in The Hague. Her main patient group involves the one with low socio-economic status and she is a street doctor for homeless people in Rotterdam. She is also involved in a pilot in which GP’s work on the ambulance. Annemarie has worked in refugee camps and is a ship’s physician on ships to the Arctic and Antarctic. She lives in The Hague, in order to have enough time for her favorite hobby; kitesurfing. Besides that, she is also a catamaran instructor and gives first aid training at the sailing school. When on a holiday, she likes to do overnight hikes.
Jacob van Dijk studied medicine in Nijmegen. After his studies, he joined the Royal Netherlands Airforce to fly the F-16. Currently, he is working in Canada as an exchange pilot, flying the F-18. In the outdoors, he can often be found above or below sea level, either in the mountains or in the water. Jacob is a AWLS instructor, DiMM and DiDDM certified, fellow of the AMW, and medical examiner of divers. He will return to medicine in the future, most likely working in emergency medicine or anesthesia combined with expedition medicine.
Pieter Simons is pursuing a PhD in respiratory physiology in the Anesthesiology department in Leiden. In the near future, he would like to bring clinical expertise to the outside world and vice versa. During his internships, he gained clinical experience abroad in Uganda and Mexico, in and outside the hospital. With Outdoor Medicine he joined the AWLS and Mountain Medicine. Between clinical work at the emergency ward, he could sign on the Sleipnir and Wylde Swan as a ship doctor. Within Outdoor Medicine, Pieter is part of the editorial board and founder of Student Outdoor Medicine.
Marijn Sinkeldam is working as a medical doctor in cardiology and as a researcher in orthopaedics in Nijmegen after having gained emergency room and ICU experience. He did internships in Ghana, travelled through South America, learned Spanish and explored the Andes. Marijn is a sportsman; he has dedicated himself to ultra trail racing (100-mile mountain trail races). His goal? In the long run: combining sports medicine with expedition medicine. Marijn is founder of the Student Outdoor Medicine (SOM) weekend and the Trailrunning First Aid (TFA) course and is involved as an instructor with the Wilderness First Aid (WFA) and WFA Mountain. As a travel doctor, he is involved in Medical Expedition Support.
Isla Wormald. BSc MBChB (Leeds) DiMM (UIAA/ IKAR/ ISMM) MRCEM was born & raised in Yorkshire, England & has reportedly been summiting peaks since she was in utero, although not without protest in her early teenage years… Subsequently, a passion for outdoor pursuits evolved! She did research in Chamonix Hospital, France and was a doctor for Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association; British Schools Exploring Society (BSES) on several expeditions, for Leeds Metropolitan University Himalayan Research Expedition 2011; on Kilimanjaro and for Medex Manaslu 2015. Isla is now a locum Specialist Registrar in Emergency Medicine. She helped deliver the first UIAA/ ICAR/ ISMM Nepal DiMM & has since become an AWLS instructor & a faculty member of both Outdoor Medicine & World Extreme Medicine. She is an aspirant FAWM, MTA Summer & Winter Mountain Leader & BAIML International Mountain Leader. Her ambition is to one day climb a previously unclimbed peak!
Maran Fazzi is doing a residency global health and tropical medicine. Prior to this, she gained experience in different specialities in different countries. David Attenborough is her idol and she enjoys bootcamp, surfing and paragliding. During her rotation in military medicine, she came to know about Outdoor Medicine and participated in the AWLS course and stayed involved since. In 2019-2020 she went along as a medical doctor on an expedition on board of a replica of a 600 b.C. Phoenician sailing boat, on which she crossed the Atlantic ocean.
Paul van Overbeeke is an Emergency Physician from the Netherlands and he has worked in different remote areas all around the world and on expeditions to the North and South Pole. He is an AWLS-instructor, after following courses in Costa Rica & Australia, and POCUS-instructor for Médecins Sans Frontières. Furthermore, he did one year of pre-hospital and retrieval medicine as flight doctor in the top end of Australia (Darwin) for CareFlight Air-Ambulance Service, both flying in fixed wing aircrafts and helicopters, in the remote and vast area of the Northern Territory and in the countries north of Australia.
Esther Schadd is a military internist-infectiologist and works at the Central Military Hospital & UMCU. During her education she worked in Central America for six months and in the Dutch Antilles for two years. At the Ministry of Defense she is a member of the BIO Aeromedevac Team, Advisory Board for Prehospital Emergency Care and actively involved in establishing a military expertise center for extreme medicine.
She likes to spend time in the outdoor with the most special experience being a six-month hike with her family through the national parks of America and Canada. She is an AWLS instructor since 2019.
Tim van Riessen worked as a resident in the ER and paediatrics. Ultimately he wants to alternate his job as a general practitioner with work as an expedition doctor. After work Tim likes to spend time outdoors: camping in the woods or climbing abroad. As a student he was in South Africa, Uganda and Wales, the latter to join a research project for the Extremes Research Group. For Outdoor Medicine he is an editor and helps organizing the Student Outdoor Medicine Weekend.
Nelleke Ernsting is a locum GP and ship’s doctor. She loves hiking, running, kayaking and climbing, the last mentioned in mountains as well as up in a yard of a sailing vessel. From Spitsbergen to the Antarctics. Before she became a GP, she was a Military Doctor. She successfully finished the Diploma in Mountain Medicine and the AWLS course. She enjoys transferring her knowledge and be busy with outdoor medical topics. By giving the outdoor medicine courses she combines hobbies and works in a magnificent way!
Yvette Keemink is a general practitioner and has work experience in New Zealand and Nepal. She is responsible for the WFR and WFA courses. She enjoys sports (triathlon) and spending time in the mountains tramping or skiing where the Mountain Medicine and AWLS courses both have turned out to be very useful.
Pleunie Rood works as emergency physician in The Netherlands. She has a PhD in surgery, and spent part of her professional career in Tanzania, South Africa, the U.S.A. and the U.K. This gave her the opportunity to practice medicine under different circumstances, and to follow her passion for travelling, nature and outdoor sports. She is AWLS instructor. Currently, she participates in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. Besides clinical work her areas of focus are education and research.
Mattijn Buwalda is a locum anaesthetist and dive medicine physician. He works in the Netherlands and abroad. He is especially interested in extreme physiology, the history of military medicine and dive medicine. As a member of the board of the Dutch Society of Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine, he is mainly involved in training and certification of dive physicians.
Floris van den Berg is a general practitioner, diving doctor and AWLS instructor. As an expedition doctor he worked on all 7 continents in very challenging circumstances. From the mountains in Peru and Tanzania, the jungle of Belize, to remote places as a ship’s doctor in Siberia, Greenland and Antarctica. In 2016, he worked as an ESA research physician for 14 months at the remote research base Concordia on the South Pole. Conducting research on the effects of chronic hypobaric hypoxia, isolation and extreme cold. His most recent trip was to Papua New Guinea, where he worked as a hospital doctor in a small remote hospital in the jungle.
Jacco Veldhuyzen is emergency physician and certified diving physician. At this moment he is based at a major traumacentre in South-East England. During his training he traveled to all corners of the world and practiced medicine in South-America and the Carribean. He gained pre-hospital experience as ship doctor and event doctor. He has joined Outdoor Medicine in 2016 as AWLS and DMLS faculty. Favourite activities are diving, mountainbiking, canoeing and hiking.
Lauke Bisschops is a specialist in geriatric medicine and previously worked as an emergency room doctor. She helped set up outdoor medicine and now regularly attends the AWLS course as an instructor, with a special interest in lightning injuries. In recent years, she has worked as a doctor for the TV production Expedition Robinson. She worked as a diving doctor for a nature organization and regularly goes to the North and South Pole as a ship’s doctor. She has also climbed Kilimajaro and regularly works as an event and motorcycle doctor for several organizations.
Crispijn van den Brand is an emergency physician and works currently for the Dutch Institute for Clinical Auditing (DICA). He completed a PhD in emergency medicine with the subject of traumatic brain injury. Crispijn lived in South Africa for some time and worked as an intern in Surinam. He loves to travel and especially likes walking in the mountains and scuba diving in all corners of the world. He is an AWLS instructor after previously participating in the first AWLS course in the Netherlands and subsequently participating in courses in Botswana and Nepal.
Willemijn Hubertus works as a general practitioner. She has a passion for travelling and exploring new countries. Besides her job, she loves to do sports activities outside. She worked in Switzerland at the first aid department, where she discovered tour skiing. Recently she helped to start up a medical clinic on Aruba. There she found another new passion: kitesurfing. In 2015 she followed the mountain medicine course in Austria, and last summers, she made several glacier tours and worked as a ship’s physician in Spitsbergen. She loves to combine her job as a GP with her outdoors passion.
Mieke Luten
Mieke Luten works as a locum GP in a small rural village in Diever in Drenthe
She did part of her medical training in Australia where she developed an even stronger desire to work in remote areas immersed in nature.
During her electives she participated in the AWLS course where she found likeminded souls and started teaching with Outdoor Medicine after. Mieke favours warmer environments and spent some time working as a medic in the Saharan desert,with the Floating Doctors in Panama providing care for indigenous communities, volunteers during road races in The Netherlands and this summer she’s leading the medical team for The Migration Gravel race, a gravel stage race in Kenya. She loves sports and spends most of her spare time on the gravel bike.
Feico Halbertsma was trained as a pediatric intensivist/neonatologist and now works at Maxima Medical Center, focusing on acute paediatrics and sedation. In 2005-2006 he obtained the Diploma in Mountain Medicine in Austria, and from 2017 he is an instructor at the Mountain Medicine course. His first job was in a hospital in the Indian Himalayas, where he still regularly returns for short-term work and/or teaching (and climbing, of course). He spends as much time as possible in the mountains in his spare time.
Ambassador
Andre Kuipers
We are extremely proud that Andre Kuipers is an ambassador of Outdoor Medicine. Besides being a two-time astronaut, he is also the most famous Dutch physician to practice in ‘extremes’. Therefore he is a great inspiration to us all!
