
Background
The resources below include links to educational opportunities relating to medicine in austere and extreme environments and the diverse fields of endeavour that this covers. We are happy to receive contributions, and to add additional categories of resources. Please contact us to contribute.
Aerospace Medicine
Short Courses
- The European Space Agency’s ESA Academy offers an annual Human Space Physiology Training Course. Applications for 2021 closed in mid-August. There are some entrance requirements (aimed at medicine/life sciences university students and a degree of affiliation with ESA is required).
Duke University ‘Space Medicine’ Course
Duke University offers a free Space Medicine course on the Coursera platform. Send an email to space.medicine@duke.edu with your name and you’ll be get access to the six weeks of materials. There will be future live sessions and potentially six more weeks of videos produced by NASA. Follow Dominic Tanzillo on Twitter for these updates. Read more about the course and its founders here.
‘A Brief History of Human Spaceflight’ Course
The University of Houston offers a free course, ‘A Brief History of Human Spaceflight’, on the Coursera platform.
Baylor College of Medicine ‘Space Medicine Pathway’
- The Baylor College of Medicine Center for Space Medicine offers cutting-edge electives and a Space Medicine Pathway to undergraduate medical students at Baylor College of Medicine. All courses are taught by Baylor faculty as well as experts from other institutions and NASA. The electives are popular and receive excellent reviews from students. See information about the curriculum and lecture videos. (Even if it’s not practical for you to undertake the pathway, it is great that the set of lecture videos is available on YouTube.)
Upcoming Webinars
- There is usually a lot going on in the area of space and space health, and the best way to hear about new events is to monitor social media feed, particularly on LinkedIn and on Facebook the Space Medicine & Biology Visionaries group. If you live in the Australasian region, the Bioastronautics Australia Network may also appeal.
Conference Proceedings and Seminar Series
- The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) Department of Preventive Medicine and Population Health offers an Aerospace Seminar Series (recordings of all seminars from 2019-20 are currently available online).
- 10th Australian Space Forum, 25 November 2020 – view sessions on YouTube.
- 2nd Australian Space Biology Symposium (online), 17-20 November 2020. YouTube channel with pre-recorded presentations.
- UNOOSA Space4Health webinars (14 May 2020).
- Recordings of a large number of the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH)/Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) Red Risk School webinars for 2018-20 are available here. Alternatively, stream all the Red Risk School seminars with the Red Risk Playlist on YouTube. You can join the TRISH mailing list to stay up-to-date on the latest TRISH solicitations and happenings.
- For the TRISH Space Health Primer visit this page (video also available on YouTube).
- A series of webinars from the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) Space Medicine and Life Sciences Project Group can be found on YouTube.
- Recordings of the Project POSSUM/IIAS Space Medicine Group April/May 2020 “Astronaut Mentality Webinar Series” are available here.
Medical Student Electives
- The University of Colorado Department of Emergency Medicine Section of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine offers a number of wilderness and space-related courses and medical student electives, including: Medical Student Elective IDPT 8059 – Space Medicine: Human Spaceflight Factors & Medical Risk Assessment – the remaining dates for 2021 will be in September (dates tba).
Aerospace
Upcoming Webinars
- Aviation/Aerospace Australia: A/AA has a special interest group for women in aerospace and the NextGenNetwork, and offers regular webinars and seminars. At present these are being offered free due to the pandemic. Check the website for upcoming events and for membership information.
- The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has a web page for Seminars & Webinars. There is a huge number of events listed, and at present many of them are offered free of charge.
Space
Upcoming Webinars
- Fortnightly: The International Astronautical Federation (IAF) Global Networking Forum Space Conversations Series: ONLINE, 14:00 Paris time. This will be a series of online, fortnightly live webinars regarding developments in space. Please visit https://www.iafastro.org/events/iaf-gnf-spaceconversations-series/ for more information.
- The Space Show offers a weekly webinar on a wide range of space-related topics, usually in the afternoon European time. The Space Show has been built upon the Space4Women initiative of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) with the objective of facilitating access to the benefits of space exploration, science and technology, STEM education, and STEM careers for women and girls around the world in alignment with Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 5.
Space Studies
- The International Space University offers a variety of space studies courses. See the website for details about the current course offerings, which include the annual Space Studies Program (usually held in the northern hemisphere) and the Southern-Hemisphere Space Studies Program (Adelaide, Australia).
- ISU also offers a very generous scholarship program for both of these major course offerings. See the website for more information.
- The MMAARS Virtual Astronautics Academy offers a twelve-day Analog Astronautics General Program. See the website for more information.
Mars-focused Education
- An international academic and research organization, Mars University (MarsU) is a U.S. nonprofit based in Los, Angeles, CA that was co-founded over the summer of 2020. Applications for its 2021 Summer Program have closed but stand by for 2022!
Educator Space Resources
- Teaching Space With NASA (from NASA JPL). Join NASA experts and education specialists for live education webinars. Ask questions, get teaching resources and share the excitement of space exploration with students.
- NASA STEM Engagement. This website offers a huge number of resources for both educators and students and for home-schooling.
- NASA Express – Your STEM Connection newsletter.
Wilderness and Pre-Hospital Medicine
- For students or volunteers working in the pre-hospital area, consider joining the Australasian College of Paramedicine for access to a very wide range of events, webinars, online courses, conferences, access to the College’s quarterly electronic magazine, monthly eNews and peer-reviewed journal, as well as other benefits.
- TacMed Australia offers a number of training courses. These are open to the public. There is also a resources page on the website.
- The University of Colorado Department of Emergency Medicine Section of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine offers a number of wilderness and space-related courses.
- The Global Organisation for Wilderness Medicine Education (GOWME) offers a free Wilderness and Emergency Medicine Lecture Series and an outstanding Resources page covering a wide variety of topics relating to wilderness and environmental medicine. There is also a page for Archived Lectures.
- The Wilderness Medical Society is offering a free series of “Fireside Chat” webinars for members to discuss various facets of wilderness medicine research, as well as to engage with and learn more about the WMS. These hour-long, non-CME discussions will be moderated by committee members and feature presentations as well as open Q&A.
Climate, Disaster and Emergency Medicine
- TorqAid offers a wide number of resources related to disaster and humanitarian response and also provides an online online, accredited Participatory Disaster Risk Management (PDRM) program: www.torqaid.com/online-pdrm-program
- Understanding the Yemen: www.torqaid.com/understanding-yemen
- Australian East-Coast flooding – use of DRMC diagram: https://www.torqaid.com/australian-east-coast-flooding/
- A ‘two pager’ Covid-19 Summary Sheet – www.torqaid.com/coronavirus. The Summary Sheet provides invaluable material on the following:
- Key Australian government departments providing public information on COVID-19;
- Key global agencies involved in either the fight against COVID-19, or providing public information on this;
- A brief overview on progress in responding to the pandemic;
- A very brief bibliography, with references highlighting the challenges in developing countries;
- The link to the PDRM.
- NEW! The University of Melbourne – Specialist Certificate in Disaster and Terror Medicine https://study.unimelb.edu.au/find/courses/graduate/specialist-certificate-in-disaster-and-terror-medicine/
- Disaster Doc – Dr Mark Keim
- http://disasterdoc.org/
- Offers a free e-book: “Too little, too late – why you can’t rely on rescue”.
- (also has a YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/user/TheDisasterDoc)
- The International Emergency Medicine Education Project (iEM) has been providing free emergency medicine educational resources for medical students since June 2018. The Emergency Medicine Core Content Course is designed according to undergraduate emergency medicine curriculum recommendations of the International Federation for Emergency Medicine and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). All students around the world are free to register and use the resources provided in this course. For more information and to register visit: https://iem-course.org/courses/emergency-medicine-cc/.
- Other iEM project resources include:
- iem-student.org is the main hub of the iEM Education project. Students can reach 2018 eBook chapters, blog posts, video, image, audio archives through this website.
- Flickr image archive contains images and short videos provided by iEM contributors. All photos and short videos are free to download. These items can be used in presentations and exams.
- YouTube video archive is where clinical videos and interviews with world-renowned experts are shared.
- SoundCloud audio archive contains iEM 2018 eBook chapters recorded in audio so students can download and listen anytime and anywhere.
- All iEM resources are cost and copyright free for all medical students and educators.
- The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre (BIDMC) Fellowship in Disaster Medicine is offered on an annual basis, and is open to international medical graduates.The BIDMC Fellowship in Disaster Medicine is a one year fellowship program based in Boston, USA with an option for a second subspecialty year if approved. The admissions process runs from July – December 31st each year, and accepted Fellows begin their Fellowship July 1. Included in the fellowship is an academic appointment at Harvard Medical School.It is important to note that individual Fellows are responsible for a full year of tuition fees at Harvard University (over US$100,000) and their own living and travel costs.
- The BIDMC also offers a two-year GME Climate and Human Health Fellowship. This includes completion of an MPH at Harvard. A minimum of 3-4 years emergency medicine residency is a prerequisite.
- The Living Closer Foundation physician GME Fellowship in Climate & Health Science Policy is a 12-24 month program hosted by the University of Colorado Department of Emergency Medicine.
- Alfred Health Emergency Education offers a variety of short courses, vocational training, and courses for academic credit as well as conferences, recordings of past events, and news updates.
One Health
- NEW! The University of Melbourne – Graduate Certificate in Infectious Disease Epidemiology
https://study.unimelb.edu.au/find/courses/graduate/graduate-certificate-in-infectious-disease-epidemiology/
- One Health Awareness Month (January of each year)
- The “Soulsby Fellowships” are provided by The Soulsby Foundation. The Trustees aim to award one or two Soulsby Fellowships annually through a competitive application process. Each Fellowship will be granted to an individual who has proposed an impactful project within the international field of “One Health”, and is likely to be between UK£10,000 and £15,000 in value to cover travel and subsistence expenses in carrying out the project.
Critical Care Medicine
- Monash University Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine free 1.5 hour webinar on Lessons from COVID-19 in Critical Care (YouTube channel).
- New short courses from the Department of Anaesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Monash University – Human Factors and Perioperative Medicine


Eye and Ear Medicine – RVEEH
- The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (RVEEH) has a large number of high-quality GP training session and webinar recordings on its GP Education and Training webpage. This is a fabulous collection of resources.
Short Courses for Health Professionals
The Monash University Institute for Health and Clinical Education offers a wide range of short courses for health professionals in the areas below:
- Health Professions Education
- Clinical Simulation
- Public Health
- Aviation Medicine
- Statistics
- Clinical Trial Fundamentals for Public Health and Medical Research
- Occupational and Environmental Health
- Clinical Sciences and Central Clinical School
- Clinical Skills.
Further short courses are available via FutureLearn, and a number of award courses are also offered (see the websites for details).

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WEBSITE CREDITS:
~ Learning to Avoid Danger by Aurora Anna Kristiansdottir, 2020, image supplied by the creator.
~ Lithograph by an unknown author. The illustration, first appearing in a book by Camille Flammarion in 1888, was sourced from: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200405.html.