International Commission for Alpine Rescue

The International Commission for Alpine Rescue (ICAR) was founded in 1948. ICAR is incorporated as an association under Swiss law, with its seat in Kloten, Switzerland. ICAR does not pursue any commercial purposes and is not profit oriented. The main common language is English, with German and French being official ICAR languages too. The top organizational body is the ICAR Assembly of Delegates, where member organizations are represented by delegates (number of delegates depending on the type of membership). The ICAR Assembly of Delegates usually takes place in October upon the annual ICAR Convention, which is alternately organized by one of its member organizations. ICAR currently has 85 member organizations in 34 countries worldwide. The ICAR Assembly of Delegates appoints members for the ICAR Executive Board (President, Vice-President, Treasury, Technical Commission Presidents and Assessors, all of them volunteers), which takes care of the daily business through the year. For administrative tasks (correspondence, web-mastering) there is an ICAR Office, staffed 12 hours weekly, located at Zurich-Airport in Switzerland, financed in equal parts by ICAR and the member ARS Alpine Rettung Schweiz, hosting it. ICAR has 4 Technical Commissions, which develop and publish the recommendations which are published on the ICAR website. Together these Commissions cover all aspects of mountain rescue:

The International Commission for Mountain Emergency Medicine ICAR MEDCOM was founded in 1948 by the Alpine countries as a sub-commission of the International Commission for Mountain Rescue (with the aim to improve medical treatment of casualties in the mountains. President is at present Dr. Fidel Elsensohn. To date ICAR MEDCOM has a membership of 90 active emergency physicians, working in mountainous areas, representing more than 35 organizations from all continents. The main goal of the Committee is the elaboration of recommendations and guidelines dealing with scientific and practical aspects of mountain rescue and emergency treatment of casualties in mountainous terrain. The papers are intended for emergency physicians, paramedics and first responders. All our recommendations and guidelines are published in international peer reviewed journals. Moreover, preventive recommendations for mountaineers are worked out in collaboration with the Medical Commission of UIAA (The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation).

The commission is also involved in education and training of mountain rescuers and physicians in countries with efforts of establishing a system of local rescue groups and a demand of knowledge and training. Up to now, we supported courses in Argentina (2005) and Nepal (2009) with human and financial resources.

In cooperation with UIAA MEDCOM and ISMM (International Society for Mountain Medicine) ICAR MEDCOM has established the "Diploma for Mountain Medicine" and the "Diploma for Mountain Emergency Medicine" in order to standardize postgraduate medical training for physicians interested and/or involved in mountain medicine and rescue medicine in mountainous areas. The commission meets twice a year at the spring meeting (on invitation of our members) and at the ICAR Assembly of Delegates where we present our work to the other commissions. Additionally, members are invited to many national and international congresses to give lectures and present their scientific work.


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External links

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