Furthermore, in establishing duty and standard of care, courts would consider the unique circumstances of each case, including the remoteness of the location, severity and urgency of the medical condition, availability of local transportation or other means of evacuation, and the accessibility of more definitive medical care.[5] Suits are ordinarily brought in the geographic location where the action occurred. However, trek applications frequently contain

a jurisdiction clause that specifies the venue for litigation (often the state in which the trek operator is headquartered). Moreover, courts in a foreign country may not want to take jurisdiction over actions Obeticholic Acid in vivo Selleck AZD6244 between two foreigners, or the country in question may not

have a precedent for medical malpractice suits; even if there is a precedent, the potential awards may be too small to be deemed worthwhile by the person with the complaint. Therefore, even in the absence of a jurisdiction clause, these suits have usually been filed in the home country, arguing that the company is based at home, and a contractual agreement exists between the company and the client. Are there alternatives to bringing a group expedition medical kit? As travel medicine practitioners, we routinely prescribe standby medications for malaria, diarrhea, check details respiratory infection, skin infection,

pain, sleep, motion sickness, and altitude illness, among other conditions. To get around the issue of trip leaders or doctors practicing medicine on the trip, legal advisors have argued that each participant should have his/her own medication prescribed for them by their personal physicians, with appropriate instructions. However, it would be the rare client who has a physician both knowledgeable enough—and willing—to prescribe and instruct the patient in the use of a broad range of contingency drugs. More importantly, some medications are of value only in rare emergency circumstances that may not be anticipated for a given client—it is not sensible to ask each client to carry their own epinephrine, emergency cardiac medications, injectable narcotics, anti-psychotics, and other critical but rarely used drugs. If a group medical kit is available on the expedition, the question of whether non-medical trip leaders can recommend or administer these drugs raises questions about standards for expedition leaders. Sometimes a trip leader has much more knowledge and experience than a trip physician, or a medical bystander.