UTMB’s Dr. David Curtis has landed at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station for a new challenge. He will be providing health support services for an Antarctica research station where the average outdoor winter temperature is -69 degrees Fahrenheit. He will be in Antarctica for about nine months, possibly returning state side in October. The station is located at the Geographic South Pole, which is the southernmost place on the Earth. The station is 9,301 feet above sea level. Curtis works for UTMB, which coordinates the health care at the base. “They needed a physician to go to the ice,” Curtis said. “They sent messages asking if anybody would want to go the South Pole?” At the station, Curtis will join two other physicians, two midlevel medical providers and a physical therapist in the winter time, and there will be biomedical technical support in the summer time, he said. “The medical facilities at the stations are comparable to what you might find in a military battalion support hospital,” Curtis said. “There is an x-ray, ultrasound and so on. We have some telemedicine support. We can get ahold of any specialist at UTMB at any time.”