Dive and marine medicine topics are relevant to the practices of physicians who treat patients in
coastal or marine environments, or patients who return inland from such locations. Assessment
and treatment of these patients require special knowledge and expertise.
Most experts that we have consulted consider the course topics listed in this program as very
relevant "core topics" to the majority of physicians interested in dive and wilderness medicine. The
faculty members have taught on these topics and many similar meetings, and this meeting
conforms to similar, highly regarded CME sessions sponsored by such organizations as the Divers
Alert Network and the Hyperbaric and Undersea Medical Society.
Course Objectives
a) To educate participants in the pathophysiology, recognition, and treatment of a variety of
medical problems commonly encountered in aquatic (dive) and wilderness environments, and
settings remote from hospital or definitive care.
b) To help establish a set of treatment priorities for care of the sick or injured in dive and
wilderness settings.
c) To educate participants, when appropriate to the topic, in basic aspects of improvised care,
rescue, and evacuation.
d) To teach participants certain "field skills" that might enable a physician to be more "capable" in a
setting remote from definitive care. Some of these topics include in-water survival skills related to
a dive setting, planning an expedition medical kit, field water disinfection, and "improvisational"
medical skills.
e) To educate participants about psychological aspects of dive and wilderness emergencies.
f) To educate participants about some of the current recommendations regarding prophylaxis and
treatment for so – called "traveler’s illnesses".
g) To discuss and review recent investigative studies and literature on dive and wilderness
medicine topics.
