Life as a GP with a volcano in your backyard

14.04.2011

Second special plenary session, from the sparckling diamonds to our powerful mother nature.

Our Icelandic colleague Thorir B. Kolbeinsson, will tell us what it was like to be the senior GP with responsibility for Public Health activities in the district where the Volcano Eyafjallajökull erupted one year ago, on 14 April. The ash from this "monster volcano" created days of continuous darkness in parts of his practice area and spread widely over Europe, reminding the whole world of our global interconnectedness ans vulnerability...

Thorir B Kolbeinsson was born in  Iceland 1955.  He graduated from the University of Iceland in 1981, served one year internship in medicine in USA, and finished his specialty in Family Medicine in Sweden  1988. Since 1989 he has been Chief physician  at Hella Health Center in Southern Iceland. 

Thorir has been an active member  of  The Icelandic College of Family Physicians and served as  President 1999-2003. His field of work has mainly centered on the work and working conditions of rural doctors. Thorir has experienced several natural disasters in his practice, both earthquakes and eruptions but the Eyjafjallajökull eruption has so far been the biggest challenge.