Doctors for Divers
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Duke Dive Medicine, DiveAssure Partner to Improve Dive Medicine and Emergency Services
DURHAM, N.C. – Physicians at Duke Dive Medicine (DDM) at Duke University’s Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology and the DiveAssure association have partnered to provide underwater divers with an array of new services.
“Now divers who are insured by DiveAssure will have around-the-clock access to physician experts who can assist remotely with divers’ emergencies by providing real-time answers to questions when every second counts,” said Jake Freiberger, M.D., M.P.H., a physician and scientist at Duke University Medical Center and director of Duke Dive Medicine
DDM will provide services that include emergency inquiries, diving-related medical consultation, evacuation oversight and a non-emergency hotline for general diving medicine questions.
The partnership will also benefit divers because of improved data collection worldwide about recreational diving accidents that will make the diving profession and pastime even safer. For more information on the services offered, visit www.diveassure.com.
Duke Dive Medicine also partners with the Divers Alert Network (DAN), which was founded by faculty members at Duke University in 1980. DAN's mission is to provide emergency medical advice and assistance for underwater diving and aquatic injuries, to work to prevent injuries, and to promote diving and aquatic safety, research and education.
Duke Dive Medicine is located at the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology and the and F.G. Hall Environmental Laboratory at Duke University. The Center was founded in 1963 and today forms one of the world’s foremost medical facilities specializing in the physiology and medical management of human exposure to extreme environments. It is located at Duke University Hospital and is the largest hospital-based hyperbaric treatment facility in the world. It serves as the primary backup facility in the Southeast for the treatment of diving injuries for the United States Armed Forces as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and local police, fire, and rescue agencies.
Duke Dive Medicine comprises a core group of physicians, nurses and technical members of the Center’s Clinical Hyperbaric Medicine Service and provides both direct and consultative medical support for recreational, technical, commercial, and military divers. The Center’s research directly benefits divers by improving the prevention of and treatment of patients with decompression sickness, arterial gas embolism, oxygen toxicity and other diving-related medical conditions and has provided a scientific foundation for the clinical practice of hyperbaric medicine.
DiveAssure association offers the diving community diving insurance and assistance programs, including the only comprehensive dive-travel program available in the U.S. market today. All DiveAssure annual membership programs include primary diving insurance coverage and 24/7 travel and medical emergency assistance services provided through Travel Guard and Chartis Insurance Claim Services.
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Now divers who are insured by DiveAssure will have around-the-clock access to physician experts who can assist remotely with divers’ emergencies by providing real-time answers to questions when every second counts
