Initiated by interested residents in 2000, the MFMR uniquely and enthusiastically supports a three-year, longitudinal Wilderness Medicine Track integrated with residency training in family medicine. While all residents are exposed to our Core Curriculum in Wilderness Medicine, "Trackers" are supported in further training through a 5-day course in Wilderness Advanced Life Support (WALS), our biannual Update in Wilderness Medicine at Chico Hot Springs, time to attend one of the national Wilderness Medical Society conferences, practical skills workshops, and options to pursue clinical experience, research, writing and public address in topics of wilderness medicine. Participants in this intensive training track will leave the residency as Practitioners and Educators in Wilderness Medicine.

The wilderness medicine practitioner wears many hats, and training in family medicine at the urban/rural interface of Billings provides ample opportunity to don them all. Further, as the MFMR has the primary goal of placing doctors in rural areas, the program recognizes that the skills and knowledge derived from training in wilderness medicine is directly transferable to rural medicine whether it be in the outpatient, hospital or emergency department setting.

Click to see the inaugural article describing our wilderness medicine curriculum in the Journal of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine.

Montana and the Northern Rockies are blessed with a vast expanse of varied wild lands, central of which is the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem that supports the majority of the nation's populations of grizzlies, wolves, elk and native trout. MFMR residents have half-day to weeks-long access to this enormous wilderness complex. Within an easy access are: