Volume 16 Number 4, SUMMER 1999

Medicine on

the road less traveled

A new course

focuses on the medical needs

of globetrotters.

THE THOUGHT OF BEING TRAMPLED BY ELEPHANTS OR INJURED BY WARRING NEW GUINEA TRIBESMEN PROBABLY DOESN'T OCCUR TO THE AVERAGE PERSON WHEN PLANNING A VACATION. BUT ERIC L. WEISS KNOWS THAT THESE ARE JUST SOME OF THE VERY REAL HAZARDS FACING TODAY'S ADVENTUROUS GLOBETROTTERS. ACCORDING TO WEISS, EAGER TRAVELERS FREQUENTLY OVERLOOK THE FACT THAT BEAUTIFUL AND EXOTIC DESTINATIONS CAN ALSO BE DANGEROUS, OFTEN PLACING THEMSELVES AT RISK FOR HEALTH EMERGENCIES WHERE LITTLE MEDICAL HELP IS AVAILABLE.

"People in general are pretty ignorant about the content and nuances of traveler's health," says Weiss, MD, associate chief of emergency medicine at Stanford. Weiss serves as medical director of the Stanford Alumni Association's Travel/Study Program, providing the association and its travelers with pre-trip medical guidance and frequently serving as group physician on higher-risk trips.

Now Weiss has combined his expertise in emergency medicine with his interest in the field of travel medicine to offer a new class to Stanford medical students. Medicine 225 -- Travel Medicine and International Health will teach the students the skills necessary for self-treatment on the road less traveled, helping to keep themselves and others healthy. In addition to teaching travel medicine techniques, Weiss hopes the class will offer medical students a foray into international health opportunities in the growing specialty.

"It provides a backbone for traditional travel medicine but also overlays some of the less common but emerging aspects of diseases," Weiss says of the course, which he believes may be the first of its kind in the nation. The spring quarter course, offered for the first time in the 1998-1999 academic year, focuses on preparing medical students to address pre- and post-travel-related medical issues, including immunizations and emerging diseases as well as wound management, altitude sickness, and exposure to poisonous snakes, spiders and scorpions. The class also addresses issues that affect certain groups such as women and children or travelers with special medical needs. In addition to regular lectures given by Weiss and guest speakers, the course includes trips to refugee health clinics and travel medicine clinics in the region.

According to Weiss, the course and the new field use an interdisciplinary approach to focus on the unique health needs of the international globe-trotter.

"It's a blending of traditional fields of medicine with many of the psychosocial issues germane to travel," he explains. As international and adventure excursions have increased in popularity in recent years, physicians are recognizing the importance of understanding the special medical needs of their traveling patients. The International Society of Travel Medicine and its quarterly publication, the Journal of Travel Medicine, exemplify the growing interest in traveler's health that is beginning to permeate the medical community. Additionally, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene offers certification in tropical medicine to qualified practitioners. Weiss is one of the few physicians in northern California certified by the organization.

Weiss founded the Stanford Travel Medicine Service in 1993. The clinic offered traveler's health counseling and immunizations on a drop-in basis until its closure in 1996, when Weiss left Stanford to become the chief medical officer at San Francisco International Airport. Weiss returned to Stanford about two years ago and is in the final stages of reorganizing the Travel Medicine Service, which will re-open in the fall. Students, faculty and staff interested in emerging diseases and the wide variety of other topics encompassed by the field of travel medicine can check out the class next spring. Weiss is also developing a layperson version of the course, which he expects to offer this fall through Stanford's Continuing Studies Program. For more information about the Stanford Travel Medicine Service, call 650-723-2600. -- BY KRISTA CONGER