The Explora Medicine Story
Explora Medicine’s story begins with a need to provide quality medical care in the most extreme of situations.
A character-building journey
Sunny Whitfield - Managing Director
Sunny is an Australian-based academic, paramedic, expedition leader and safety consultant whose professional experience spans prehospital health care, humanitarian operations, expedition medicine, flight medicine, and film &TV. Sunny served in the Australian army as a reconnaissance soldier where he deployed to several conflict zones, before working as a paramedic.
In 2015, he founded a humanitarian healthcare platform that delivered remote health care clinics and training programs to vulnerable communities in Nepal, Vanuatu, Timor Leste, Fiji and Samoa. These provided over 12,000 people with access to free primary health care.
Sunny has led over sixty remote expeditions and operationally managed over thirty. He has been awarded Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and Fellow of the Australasian College of Paramedicine. He is the former program director of UTAS Masters in Health Care in Remote & Extreme Environments and the Principal Fellow of the Academy of Extreme Environment Medicine.
Sunny has extensive experience working as a medic, safety swimmer, safety diver, technical mountaineer and safety supervisor on expeditions, feature films, TV commercials, documentaries and reality TV shows.
In 2020 he established Explora Medicine as a way of encouraging good people to do great things in remote and extreme environment health care.
The beginning of Explora Medicine
Explora Medicine was born—not out of a conventional business plan, but from a series of epic misadventures, a healthy dose of audacity, and a firm belief that if you’re going to get into trouble, you might as well have a good risk manager and medic on hand.
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The journey continues
Nick Abussi - Operations Director
Nick is a paramedic, educator and consultant who started his paramedicine career over 15 years ago. After years of service in regional and remote communities, Nick qualified as a Critical Care Paramedic where he continues to serve the western corridor of Queensland, Australia.
Nick has worked as an educator with several universities and is the founder of two media platforms focused on paramedic education. He has delivered education programs on alpine, dive and altitude medicine in the Australian Alps, Great Barrier Reef and Nepal.
He has planned expeditions and taskings in Timor Leste, Nepal, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea and has worked as a retrieval co-ordinator, planning the repatriations of sick and injured Australians from across the globe.
He has worked as a risk consultant for a large Australian NGO and paramedic consultant to a recent reality TV show in the Australian outback.
Nick is a Principal Fellow of the Australian Academy of Extreme Environment Medicine and joined Explora Medicine in 2022 working with several documentaries, feature films and reality TV shows during his time.
Explora growing
Shelly Whitfield - Communications Director
Shelly is an adventurous spirit with a deep curiosity for the world and the people who inhabit it. Holding a degree in Psychology and Social Science, she combines her academic background with her love for exploration to forge meaningful connections and share stories from across the globe. With a passion for traveling, Shelly has ventured to over 50 countries, immersing herself in diverse cultures and landscapes. Her favorite destination? Argentina, especially the rugged beauty of Patagonia—a place that continuously inspires her sense of wonder.
As a keen climber, cyclist, and hiker, Shelly thrives in the great outdoors, constantly pushing herself to new heights. Her boundless energy and thirst for adventure have shaped both her personal and professional life. In her current role as Communications Director at Explora Medicine, she manages the company’s communications portfolio, ensuring that the exciting developments in the field of medicine are shared with clarity and impact.
Whether she's summiting mountains, cycling through remote landscapes, or leading communications strategies, Shelly brings a unique blend of passion, expertise, and global perspective to everything she does.
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Explora sustaining
Dr Dan Lack - Medical Director
Dr. Dan Lack is a GP based in Tasmania, Australia, with a passion for wilderness medicine and wild places. Before pursuing medicine, he spent 20 years as a climate change research scientist in Colorado, studying the health and climate impacts of atmospheric pollution. His research took him to remote locations around the world, from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans, flying over frozen Alaskan mountains and Arctic ice packs aboard ships and aircraft.
Dan’s love for wilderness medicine grew from a decade-long career as a mountain rescue specialist with the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, where he participated in over 600 rescues. He also held leadership roles within the Mountain Rescue Association. Since returning to Australia in 2014, he has contributed to Surf Life Saving Queensland, the Ben Lomond Ski Patrol, and has served as a medical director for various events, including ultramarathons in Tasmania and Mongolia.
In addition to his fieldwork, Dan is on the teaching faculty at the University of Tasmania’s School of Medicine, focusing on healthcare in remote and extreme environments. He’s worked as an expedition doctor in Antarctica, Kilimanjaro, Mongolia, and Australia’s Kimberly region, and is deeply involved in mountaineering, rock climbing, and kayaking expeditions worldwide. Dan also cares for a 220-acre wilderness in Tasmania, where he helps protect local wildlife such as platypuses, devils, and wombats.
Today, we’re a team helping you thrive in the unknown
If you find yourself in a pinch, the Explora Medicine team have built an unrivaled professional team of safety advisers, risk managers, technical specialists, and medical professionals. It’s the Explora Medicine way. Our team handles even the most urgent situations with ease, so you can focus on filming and producing awesome content.
So, if you’re scaling a mountain, traversing a jungle, crossing a desert, filming megafauna, descending to the depths of the ocean, ascending into thin air, or just attempting to keep your coffee from spilling on your keyboard, remember: Explora Medicine will be there to support you.
Our mission
To assist people to thrive in the unknown.
Our ethos
Our people are your people.
We are risk managers, security consultants, technical specialists, medical clinicians, adventurers, writers, producers, and content creators who all have one thing in common: a passion for exploring remote and extreme environments while keeping people safe. But we also stay true to our responsible travel policy in these three key areas.
- Minimising our impact on the environment and protecting the planet.
- Improving health literacy through education programs and cultural competence.
- Creating a safe and positive working environment for all staff.
We don’t just survive in these environments. We thrive.
Behind the scenes
We’re proud of the part we’ve played in some of Australia and the Asia Pacific’s best-told stories.
Let’s make a great production together
Team up with Explora Medicine for your next production. We’ll customise a plan to manage risk on your set and keep your crew and talent safe.
