Dr. med. Melina Tatalias
Medical Advisor
Melina is a consultant anaesthesiologist and emergency physician based in Zurich, Switzerland, with extensive experience in both hospital and prehospital emergency medicine. Her career spans more than a decade of ground-based emergency work, a year as a flight physician performing international repatriations, and two years serving as a HEMS doctor on a mountain base. She currently works at the University Clinic Balgrist in Zurich, specializing in ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia and as prehospital emergency physician at Regio 144.
Melina’s interest in remote and wilderness medicine began early—first as a young scout exploring her own limits and those of nature, and later as a teenager during the Explorer Belt expeditions. Over the years, she has gained further expedition experience in Nepal and Kyrgyzstan.​
​A passionate alpinist, Melina’s pursuits include ski touring, high-altitude mountaineering, multi-pitch climbing, and ultramarathon trail running. Her professional and personal interests naturally led her to the Swiss Society for Mountain Medicine (SGGM). She holds Diplomas in Mountain Medicine and in Expedition and Wilderness Medicine, and serves as a medical co-director of the SGGM basic course in mountain medicine. In addition, she teaches as an instructor for ALS, PHTLS, and simulation-based training.
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Teaching and mentoring are central to Melina’s philosophy. Whether in the trauma room or in the wilderness, she is driven by the challenge of improving both individual clinical skills and collective team performance.
Melina is deeply inspired to support the Oxford Centennial Arctic Expeditions as medical advisor, guided by two core beliefs: that Crew Resource Management (CRM) is a powerful tool for bringing out the best in teams and in challenging situations—and that curiosity remains humanity’s greatest driving force and one of its most beautiful qualities.