UHMS Northeast Chapter Annual Meeting

The Northeast Chapter of the UHMS continuing education mission is to promote educational activities for physicians and allied health professionals in the local and regional areas based on a needs assessment of the members and on the UHMS Panel of Expert Opinion. These activities will improve the scientific and practical knowledge in the areas of hyperbaric oxygen treatment and diving medicine.

The Conference Program will feature a number of outstanding local speakers, concurrent sessions. The Conference attracts researchers and practitioners from all around the world and provides a wonderful opportunity to meet and extend contacts.

Visit the DAN Booth to learn about the Referral Network of Physicans and Chambers, DAN's medical consultation services, online education, patient materials and more.

Dan Orr, President of DAN
Friday, Sept 28th at 12:00-1:00
"Are You Really Ready to Dive?"
This presentation involves a review of DAN data on diving injuries and fatalities and the role equipment plays in diving emergencies. The presentation also contains candid photos of divers using or misusing equipment with discussions of how to reduce or mitigate diving risks due to equipment configuration and use errors.

,b>Dr. Peter Denoble, Senior Director of Research at DAN
Friday, Sept 28th, 5:30-6:30pm
"Effects of Delayed Recompression on Outcome of Decompression Illness and How This May Affect Your Dive Plan"
This lecture will address the effects of delay to recompression on outcome of decompression illness and how this may affect your dive plan.
Most common manifestations of DCI in recreational diving are mild symptoms that improve with time and respond well to delayed hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT). However, in cases involving the central nervous system there is a risk of permanent impairment of functions and thus delay of HBOT is of concern. For the severe decompression accidents (SDA) as seen in technical diving, even immediate recompression may not be sufficient to save life if cardio respiratory functions are not restored and if acute brain injury could not be controlled. In this presentation we will define three levels of emergency in DCI, consider effects of delay for each level and discuss how divers should take it into account when planning their dive activities.

Marty McCafferty, DAN Medical Information Specialist
Saturday, Sept 29th at 1:00-1:30pm
"The Diminishing Number of 24/7 HBO Facilities"
In recent years the trend among HBOT facilities has been to focus primarily on wound care and other non-emergent patients. The economics are well understood but patients with emergent need are finding access to emergent HBOT rare.
The number of HBOT facilities has increased significantly over the past 6 years while conversely, the number of facilities accepting emergent patients has decreased dramatically.
This presentation is intended to highlight the current availability issue in reference to some unexpected consequences. The intention is to stimulate dialogue among practitioners of this specialty in order to achieve a meaningful solution. Experts within the industry need to provide acceptable plans before circumstance may dictates other solutions.

Dan Orr, M.S.
President of Divers Alert Network
Dan is President of Divers Alert Network (DAN). He came to Divers Alert Network in 1991 as Director of Training, responsible for developing and implementing DAN training programs including the internationally successful DAN Oxygen First Aid Course. Prior to coming to DAN, he was the Associate Diving Officer at Florida State University and, before that, he was Director of Diver Training Programs at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.
Dan has Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Biology and has authored and contributed to many books and magazine articles including co-author of Scuba Diving Safety and DAN's Pocket Guide for Diving Safety series.

Petar Denoble, M.D., PhD and Sr. Director of Research at DAN.
After graduating from medical school, Petar Denoble joined the Navy in the former Yugoslavia and specialized in naval and diving medicine. For 13 years he was involved with training, supervision and treatment of divers in open circuit, closed circuit, deep bounce and saturation diving. He did his doctoral thesis studying oxygen consumption in underwater swimming. For the last 20 years he has been with Divers Alert Network. His work at DAN has involved him in the development of the largest database of exposure and outcomes in recreational diving, the monitoring of diving injuries and the study, treatment and prevention of fatal outcomes and long-term consequences of diving accidents.

Marty McCafferty, EMT–P, DMT-A, EMD-A and DAN Medical Information Specialist
Marty has been both a dive instructor and a paramedic since 1995. He has worked as a paramedic in the field, in an ED and as an EMS supervisor at an Ohio theme park. He also has experience training students with disabilities to dive. Additionally he was certified as an AHA BLS and First Aid instructor as well as an EMT instructor. He has been with DAN since 2004. To register for the UHMS NE Chapter Meeting, please fill out the above PDF Registration form and return it to the UHMS office. For more information