COVID-19: EUBS-ECHM Position Statements
EUBS and ECHM renewed two official Position Statements. The first one on the advisability of (recreational and professional) diving activities and the performance of Diving Medical Eexaminations in this current time period. The second one guidelines and recommendations for hyperbaric centres. The hyperbaric treatment environment creates unique challenges and risks, that need to be considered and evaluated, besides the general recommendations issued by local, national and international health care authorities. See below
- COVID-19: EUBS-ECHM Position Statement on diving activities (21-05-2020)
- COVID-19: ECHM Position Statement on HBO (04-05-2020)
Please read these documents
ECHM Consensus conference, Lille, April 15-16
Announcement 10th ECHM Consensus Conference on Hyperbaric Medicine
April 15-16th 2016, Lille
The European Committee for Hyperbaric Medicine (ECHM) has in its objectives the continuous improvement in the quality of care and the safety in hyperbaric medicine. One of the tools used to reach this target is the organization of consensus conferences to issue widely accepted guidelines. Up to now, nine such conferences have been organized and their recommendations widely diffused.
Two of these consensus conferences were especially focused on the organization, indications and quality of care in Hyperbaric Medicine and have been organized in 1994 and 2004. Ten years after the last one, it is now time to review and update these guidelines according to the advance in medical knowledge and the experience gained in clinical practice during that period.
In 1994, the guidelines were elaborated by a jury from expert reports and discussion with the conference audience. In 2004, report of the guidelines was improved in grading the recommendations both by the level of evidence supporting the recommendation and the importance for practice of that recommendation. The this new guidelines, ECHM wishes to go a step further in reporting not only recommendations with their confidence level but also the evidence supporting the recommendation and how confident jury members are in that recommendation ( GRADE method).
To do so, ECHM selects well recognized experts in each field to elaborate a report on a topic with an exhaustive literature survey, a synthesis of the evidence and a proposal for recommendations on that topic. All the reports will circulate between the expert group and each expert will be asked to weight his agreement or disagreement with the proposed recommendations. During the conference, reports and expert opinions will be presented to the audience which will have an opportunity to discuss and amend the reports before final consensus.
Don’t miss the opportunity to have an input
in the ECHM guidelines
Attend the Lille Consensus Conference
the 15th-16th of April 2016
DAN campaign "Don't get lost"
Dear divers and all those who care about diving safety,
For two years, DAN has been promoting the "Don’t get lost" safety campaign.
This is one of the most successful campaigns we have running at the moment and we receive a lot of positive feedback from the diving community. It is a campaign that lives among divers and during which we introduce safety equipment they may not yet know, but can be valuable to them.
In the future we will continue to develop and distribute new campaigns and make sure existing campaigns remain under the spotlight in different ways.
We have therefore published an online quiz online, with 10 questions related to the prevention of missing divers.
Of course we would like to reach as many divers as possible and we need your help with this.
That's why I have a question for you:
If everyone shares our Facebook Post (not just like it), we will soon reach many divers who will not only be able to take the quiz, but also get to know our campaign and in this way we can also use this educational tool to improve diving safety.
You can find the FB post at https://www.facebook.com/DiversAlertNetworkEurope/posts/1750661561648618
Should you have not “liked” the page itself yet, then of course it is a good opportunity to do this as well.
The campaign itself is available on our website and we also have 2 related articles that can be shared or distributed amongst fellow divers:
Lost at sea? Increase your chances in getting found again
Which Delayed Surface Marker Buoy should I choose?
For those who are interested: It is possible to request free Safety Campaign brochures from us. We will be more than happy to send them to you.
I appreciate your help a lot in making it possible to give some attention to the “Don’t get lost” safety campaign.
Guy Thomas
Director of Safety Programs
A must have X-mas present for every diving doctor
The book "The science of Diving. Thing your instructor never told you" is a must on each diving physician's bookshelf.
Balestra and Germonpré, with various authors, have translated the wealth of experience gained with the Phypode project into a readable form for any diver doctor. This is what Stephen R. Thom, Dept. of Emergency Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine wrote in his review:
"The editors and authors of this book are a cadre of scientists and physicians with broad experience and knowledge of diving physiology and decompression theory. As is often the case, it requires a group effort to succeed in advancing practical knowledge. The colloquialism “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” is often true and the PHYPODE Research Group epitomizes this concept. By logically grouping the various elements of diving science and medicine with provocative "food for thought" sections the text offers valuable lessons to those interested in the current state of diving. Despite nearly 170 years of research, the fundamental nature of decompression stress remains elusive. As is well outlined in this book, great advances have been made to the practical elements allowing for safe diving. Nonetheless, there are glaring voids of knowledge related to the nature of bubble nucleation, its consequences and methods to ameliorate risk. The synergy exhibited in this text not only provides a foundation for what is known, it offers a glimpse of where research is taking us".
The book can be ordered by Amazone.com, Bol.com, morebooks.de or through the DANeurope webshop.
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@scotthaldane
Update: 12-08-2024