In an ongoing quest to provide the diving community with outstanding medical support, DAN has announced an addition to its quality services with a new affiliation with the Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine Department at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). With over 25 years of experience treating dive injuries, the faculty at UCSD is among the most experienced in the country.
“We are extremely pleased to announce an additional university affiliation with experts in diving medicine at the UCSD Medical Center,” said Nick Bird, MD, chief medical officer for DAN. “This agreement will provide additional resources for our emergency call center and broaden opportunities for doctors seeking training in diving medicine. We are excited about the expansion of our consultative network and the richness we will receive from collaboration with physicians who share our interest in advancing hyperbaric medicine and who are committed to the care of injured divers.”
Dr. Bird noted that this affiliation would provide an additional group of diving medicine fellows the opportunity to study case management, triage and evacuation, in the wide range of dive settings encountered by our members.
“We look forward to working with DAN, an organization that set the standard for diving safety,” said Dr. Ian Grover, medical director of the UCSD Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine Department. “We are excited by the opportunity to partner with DAN and to serve as a resource for the thousands of divers who rely on DAN for medical support. We are also excited about the educational opportunities this alliance affords to our fellowship program.”
Said Dr. Bird, “We believe this relationship will enhance the scope and range of the medical expertise we provide. The physicians at UCSD Medical Center will expand the existing consultative services currently provided by the Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine. Our strategy is to build a multi-center collaboration for an elevated level of medical service to the diving community.”
This new affiliation does not change how divers access the DAN Emergency Hotline at 919-684-9111, which is provided at no charge to DAN members and non-members alike. The hotline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for both diving and non-diving emergencies. For more information on DAN, visit dan.org online.
