MedTreks Academy
Medicine Beyond the Hospital Walls
Practical education. Real-world skills. CME designed for wherever medicine takes you.
Welcome to MedTreks Academy, the education arm of MedTreks International.
Built by medical professionals, for medical professionals, MedTreks Academy provides immersive continuing medical education focused on practicing medicine beyond traditional clinical environments—from wilderness and remote settings to international travel, expeditions, emergencies, and everyday adventures.
Whether you’re preparing to care for patients miles from the nearest hospital, developing practical wilderness medicine skills, or earning CME while exploring the world with MedTreks, our courses are designed to make you a more confident, capable, and adaptable medical professional.
Medicine doesn’t stop at the hospital doors. Neither should your education.
Where Adventure Meets Medical Education
For decades, MedTreks has believed that some of the most meaningful learning happens outside the classroom.
On a trail.
In the mountains.
Along a river.
In another country.
Or in a situation where the resources you normally depend on simply aren’t available.
MedTreks Academy brings that philosophy to life.
The Academy serves as the educational foundation behind MedTreks adventures and provides standalone courses and certifications for healthcare professionals, organizations, universities, hospitals, outdoor professionals, and anyone interested in becoming more prepared outside traditional medical settings.
Our education emphasizes practical skills, critical thinking, adaptability, and hands-on learning—because knowing what to do is important, but knowing how to adapt when the textbook answer isn’t available is what makes these skills truly useful.
International Wilderness Life Support (IWLS)
Our flagship wilderness medicine certification is designed specifically for healthcare professionals who want to expand their clinical knowledge beyond the controlled environment of the hospital or clinic.
The International Wilderness Life Support (IWLS) course combines evidence-based wilderness medicine with practical skills, scenario-based learning, global health, and travel medicine.
Topics include environmental emergencies, trauma, orthopedic injuries, wound care, medical emergencies in remote settings, evacuation decision-making, improvised medicine, travel health, and more.
28 Hours of CME | Hybrid Learning | Hands-On Skills | Certification
MedTreks CME Courses
The Classroom Just Got a Lot Bigger.
MedTreks Academy provides the educational programming behind MedTreks CME Adventures around the world.
Instead of spending your CME week inside a hotel conference room, learn while trekking through the Andes, exploring the Arctic, skiing in Japan, sailing through the Galápagos, or discovering another extraordinary corner of the world.
Our courses integrate relevant medical education into the natural rhythm of the destination and adventure.
Depending on the program, topics may include:
- Wilderness & Remote Medicine
- Travel Medicine
- Global Health
- Emergency Medicine
- Sports & Musculoskeletal Medicine
- Wellness & Resilience
- Expedition Medicine
- Environmental Medicine
- Medical Spanish
- Leadership & Teamwork
Earn CME. Explore somewhere extraordinary. Come home with skills you’ll actually remember.
Practical Skills for When Help Isn’t Around the Corner
You don’t need to work in an emergency department to make a difference when something goes wrong outdoors.
Our Wilderness First Aid (WFA) course teaches the foundational skills needed to assess injuries, manage common wilderness emergencies, improvise with limited resources, and make good decisions when professional help may be hours away.
Designed for outdoor enthusiasts, guides, trip leaders, healthcare professionals, and anyone who spends time outside, this highly practical course is built around one goal:
Helping you feel more prepared when you’re the one standing there when something happens.
Education Built for the Real World
Healthcare professionals are exceptionally good at practicing medicine when they have the right equipment, the right team, and the right resources.
But what happens when those things aren’t available?
MedTreks Academy education challenges you to think differently.
What if the ambulance is hours away?
What if your diagnostic tools fit inside a backpack?
What if you’re caring for someone in another country?
What if weather, terrain, language, or limited resources change the plan?
These environments force us back to the fundamentals of medicine: assessment, clinical judgment, problem solving, communication, leadership, and adaptability.
And those skills don’t just make you better in the wilderness.
They make you better wherever you practice medicine.
Learn It. Practice It. Use It.
We believe medical education should be active.
Depending on the course, MedTreks Academy programs incorporate:
Hands-On Skills
Practice splinting, hemorrhage control, patient assessment, wound management, patient movement, improvised techniques, medical kits, and other practical skills.
Realistic Scenarios
Work through situations where there isn’t always one perfect answer—and learn how to make thoughtful decisions with the resources available.
Expert Faculty
Learn from experienced physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, wilderness medicine educators, guides, and professionals with extensive real-world experience.
Evidence-Based Education
Our courses combine current medical knowledge with the realities of practicing in wilderness, travel, and resource-limited environments.
Community
Learn alongside curious, adventurous people who believe continuing education can be both professionally meaningful and genuinely fun.
Treks for Change
Travel with Purpose
3% of proceeds from MedTreks Academy educational programs go directly toward supporting wilderness medicine and global health education in local communities around the world. These funds help us expand access to hands-on training, practical medical skills, educational resources, and community-based learning—particularly in places where healthcare professionals and local responders may be working with limited resources or far from traditional medical facilities.
When you take a course through MedTreks Academy, you’re not only investing in your own education. You’re helping us invest in someone else’s, too.
Learn here. Make an impact there.
We believe Medical Spanish is one of the most valuable skills a healthcare professional can develop—and you don’t need to spend a year living abroad to become more comfortable using it. Our high-yield 20-hour Medical Spanish Bootcamps are designed to give medical professionals practical language skills and, most importantly, a little more confidence communicating with Spanish-speaking patients. Because Medical Spanish is hard to learn from a textbook alone, our program gets you listening, speaking, making mistakes, trying again, and using Spanish in real life. Each morning includes four hours of focused instruction—from taking a patient history and discussing symptoms to anatomy, physical exams, and common clinical conversations—followed by afternoons experiencing local destinations. The goal isn’t fluency or perfection. It’s to return home more comfortable, more capable, and more confident communicating with your Spanish-speaking patients.
Our programs are designed for people who want to feel more capable when medicine moves beyond the predictable.
That includes:
Physicians • Nurse Practitioners • Physician Assistants • Nurses • EMS Professionals • Allied Health Professionals • Medical Students • Outdoor Professionals • Guides • Trip Leaders • Adventurers
Some programs are designed specifically for licensed healthcare professionals, while others—like Wilderness First Aid—are open to anyone interested in developing practical emergency skills.
We have lots of ideas for where MedTreks education could go next—but we’d rather hear from you! We’re exploring new CME/CE specialties, expanding accreditation to more healthcare professions, and dreaming up new ways to combine great education with unforgettable travel. Emergency Medicine in the mountains? Medical Spanish in Latin America? Sports Medicine + cycling? Dental CE + golf? Veterinary Medicine on safari? Tell us what sounds exciting! Our quick 2-minute survey will help shape the courses, destinations, and adventures we build next.
Train Your Team. Build Your Program.
MedTreks Academy also partners with hospitals, universities, medical programs, healthcare organizations, outdoor organizations, and private groups to deliver wilderness and remote medicine education.
Organizations can host MedTreks Academy courses, bring training directly to their community, or explore opportunities to offer the International Wilderness Life Support certification through our educational partnership and licensing programs.
Whether you’re building a wilderness medicine curriculum, training healthcare professionals for remote environments, or simply looking for a memorable hands-on educational experience, we’d love to hear what you’re creating.
Our instructors aren’t just experts in their fields – they’re boots-on-the-ground medical professionals, educators, adventurers, and leaders who bring years of real-world experience into every course. They’ve practiced medicine in hospitals, wilderness environments, remote communities, expeditions, and across the globe. More importantly, they genuinely love to teach. Our faculty are approachable, inspiring, and highly enthusiastic about sharing their knowledge.
Course Accreditation
Nursing Continuing Education
All of our courses are approved for nursing continuing education. Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider # CEP16597, for 10-28 contact hours”.
MedTreks Academy is the medical education and CME arm of MedTreks International, offering continuing medical education for medical professionals with a focus on wilderness medicine, travel medicine, global health, emergency care, and medicine outside traditional hospital and clinical settings. MedTreks Academy provides the educational programming for MedTreks CME Adventures around the world as well as standalone courses including the International Wilderness Life Support (IWLS) wilderness medicine certification and Wilderness First Aid (WFA) training.
A wilderness medicine course teaches participants how to evaluate and manage illness and injury when traditional medical resources, equipment, transportation, or immediate emergency services may not be available. Wilderness medicine training may include environmental emergencies, trauma, orthopedic injuries, wound care, patient assessment, evacuation decisions, improvised medical care, medical kits, survival considerations, and other challenges encountered in remote environments. MedTreks Academy offers wilderness medicine education for both medical professionals and non-medical participants, depending on the course.
Yes. MedTreks Academy offers the International Wilderness Life Support (IWLS) Certification, an advanced wilderness medicine course created for medical professionals. IWLS combines online education with hands-on training and scenario-based learning to help healthcare professionals develop the skills needed to practice medicine in wilderness, remote, travel, and resource-limited environments. The complete IWLS program includes 28 hours of CME and incorporates wilderness medicine, global health, and travel medicine education.
International Wilderness Life Support (IWLS) is MedTreks Academy's comprehensive wilderness medicine certification for healthcare professionals. The course combines evidence-based medical education with practical wilderness medicine skills and realistic scenarios. Participants learn how to adapt their existing clinical knowledge to environments where diagnostic equipment, medications, personnel, transportation, and other resources may be limited. IWLS is designed for physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, EMS professionals, and other qualified medical professionals interested in wilderness and remote medicine.
Yes. MedTreks Academy offers CME courses for medical professionals through select wilderness medicine courses, certification programs, and MedTreks CME Adventures. CME hours and eligibility vary by program, so medical professionals should review the individual course or adventure page for current accreditation information, available CME credit, and participation requirements.
Yes. Wilderness medicine CME is one of the core educational focuses of MedTreks Academy. Healthcare professionals can participate in wilderness medicine education through standalone courses such as International Wilderness Life Support as well as select MedTreks CME travel programs. These courses are designed to combine evidence-based education with practical skills that can be applied in wilderness, remote, expedition, travel, and resource-limited environments.
Yes. MedTreks International specializes in CME travel and CME vacations for medical professionals. MedTreks Academy provides educational programming for MedTreks adventures in destinations around the world. Depending on the trip, CME topics may include wilderness medicine, travel medicine, global health, emergency medicine, sports medicine, wellness, resilience, environmental medicine, and other subjects relevant to medical professionals. The goal is to allow healthcare professionals to continue learning while also having the time to explore, recharge, and experience a destination.
MedTreks Academy offers different courses for different audiences. Professional-level CME and wilderness medicine certification programs may be designed for physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, EMS professionals, allied health professionals, and other healthcare professionals. Other programs, including Wilderness First Aid, may be appropriate for guides, outdoor professionals, trip leaders, travelers, and members of the general public. Check the individual course page for specific eligibility requirements.
No. Wilderness First Aid (WFA) is designed to provide practical first aid skills for people who spend time outdoors or in environments where professional medical care may not be immediately available. WFA can be valuable for outdoor enthusiasts, guides, trip leaders, travelers, educators, and medical professionals who want additional hands-on experience managing common wilderness injuries and emergencies.
Wilderness First Aid focuses on foundational assessment, first aid, emergency response, and decision-making in remote environments and does not require participants to be medical professionals. A professional wilderness medicine certification, such as International Wilderness Life Support, builds upon the participant's existing medical knowledge and explores more advanced clinical decision-making, treatment, evacuation, and patient management in wilderness and resource-limited settings. For physicians, NPs, PAs, nurses, and other healthcare professionals looking for advanced wilderness medicine training and CME, IWLS is the more comprehensive option.
Wilderness medicine challenges healthcare professionals to practice without many of the resources normally available in a hospital or clinic. It requires strong patient assessment, clinical judgment, improvisation, communication, leadership, and decision-making. These skills are valuable not only in wilderness environments but also during travel, disasters, expeditions, international work, resource-limited settings, and unexpected emergencies. Wilderness medicine training can help medical professionals become more adaptable and confident clinicians wherever they practice.
Yes. MedTreks Academy works with hospitals, universities, medical programs, healthcare organizations, outdoor organizations, and private groups interested in offering wilderness medicine education and certification. Organizations interested in hosting a course, training their medical professionals, or exploring an International Wilderness Life Support educational partnership can contact MedTreks Academy to discuss available options.