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Divers
Alert Network (DAN)
Updated: August 30, 2006
Medical Information Program
Divers Alert Network (DAN) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dive safety member organization associated with the Department of Anesthesiology and Duke University Medical Center. The organization was created in 1980, with grants from NOAA and NIOSH, as a 24-hour emergency hotline for recreational scuba diving accidents in the United States and the Caribbean. In 1983 as grants decreased, DAN instituted a membership program.
Today DAN is supported by 200,000+ members, proceeds from insurance and product sales and by donations. Members receive a number of important benefits including $100,000 emergency medical evacuation assistance, DAN educational publications, a subscription to Alert Diver magazine, and access to diving’s first and foremost accident insurance coverage.
DAN has a staff of seventy dedicated individuals, with auxiliary staffing for medical services from Duke University Medical Center and the Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology. Dan Orr is the CEO and President of DAN.
DAN helps divers in need internationally with the DAN 24-Hour Diving Emergency Hotline, its daily Medical Informational Line for general dive medical calls, and promotes dive safety through research, education, training, products and outreach programming. In 2005 DAN medics responded to 3,152 emergency calls, 6,814 medical and safety information calls, and answered 4,094 email inquiries. All inquiries are tracked through the Medical Services Call Center, which aids directly in record-keeping, follow-up and helps in the processing of all dive injuries reported through both emergency and general venues. DAN TravelAssist, an emergency medical evacuation program, provided international medical evacuation and repatriation services to 32 individuals in 2005.
The DAN website has enjoyed nearly 2 million visitors during its last fiscal year. Since DAN was founded in 1980, DAN has answered more than a quarter of a million medical and emergency calls. DAN promotes and supports underwater dive research and education, particularly as it relates to the improvement of diving safety, medical treatment and first aid. DAN strives to provide the most accurate, up-to-date, and unbiased information on issues of common concern to the diving public, primarily, but not exclusively, for dive safety.
DAN publishes a bimonthly magazine, Alert Diver, which updates its members about research and specialized information to help improve diver safety. Other publications include the Dive and Travel Medical Guide, On Board and High Viz, the publications for DAN Business Members and instructors, pocket guides for first aid for scuba diving and hazardous marine life, training manuals, a Guide to Frequently Asked Questions about dive medicine, member brochures and handbooks and a product catalog, among other publications.
Education and Training Programs
Each year DAN offers three continuing medical education courses for physicians and other medical professionals in dive medicine. A combined Duke Hyperbaric Center/DAN CME course on hyperbaric diving medicine is held each year at the Duke Medical Center, attended by more than thirty physicians and ancillary medical staff. The course also offers additional sessions on oxygen first aid for scuba diving injuries, first aid for hazardous marine life injuries and automated external defibrillators. Two additional CME courses are held offshore annually, bringing the total number of medical professionals educated each year to 150-plus. Nearly 8,600 people have taken CME courses.
DAN sponsors Duke/DAN Diving Medical Technician courses at DAN and the Hyperbaric Center. Each program fills quickly and is highly regarded in the diving industry.
In 1991, DAN initiated an oxygen program with specialized courses and developed the dive industry standard emergency oxygen equipment, which is vital for delivering oxygen to an injured diver. In addition, DAN provides Oxygen Grant and AED Matching Grant programs. As of the end of 2005, DAN has trained more than 12,000 instructors and approximately 150,000 oxygen and AED providers since the program began.
DAN released the On-Site Neurological Assessment for Divers program in the fall of 2005 for dive instructors and dive leaders, along with a separate first aid program for nondivers and in 2006 began a new program for professional divers. The program, called Dive First Aid for Professional Divers is scheduled for release in the fall. It includes Oxygen First Aid for Scuba Diving Injuries, First Aid for Hazardous Marine Life and AEDs for Scuba Diving. It also includes workplace CPR and first aid, based on guidelines provided by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, along with a segment on blood-borne pathogens.
Research Program
DAN research is supported by DAN organizational funding, federal contracts and DAN Donor gifts. Its projects are carried out at the Duke Hyperbaric Center and in the field. Projects currently undergoing analysis or reporting include studies of (1) the effects of flying after diving on the risk of decompression illness; (2) risk factors of injury in recreational diving, including case-control studies of injuries and fatalities; (3) predicted versus observed DCS risk as revealed in Project Dive Exploration (PDE), an in-water dive profile collection study. Data collection is continuing in PDE, a long-range epidemiology study. More than 125,000 dive profiles have been collected to date.
A report on dive injuries, fatalities and safe dives is published annually through the research department. A dive computer identification program has been established to identify dive computer manufacturers whose instruments are compatible with PDE. Since 1999, the DAN research program has offered a summer internship program. In the past seven years, DAN has had fifty interns trained as FRCs and collecting PDE data in the field, including ten interns in 2006. It is a great opportunity for students to collect data as it provides experience in diving research. To date, the Research Interns have collected 30,000-plus dive profiles, with more coming in daily.
DAN Research and Medicine conducted a diabetes and diving study from 1997-2000. The study was published in 2005 in the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Journal. A workshop held in conjunction with the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society has promulgated guidelines for assessment and glucose management of individuals with diabetes who wish to dive.
In 2005, DAN Research and Medicine departments presented 11 abstracts to the scientific diving community; edited two workshop proceedings; and published six proceeding articles, one report, one book chapter, six unrefereed articles and four papers in refereed journals.
About DAN
DAN Donor funding supports the DAN Recompression Chamber Assistance Program, RCAP, which provides education and technical assistance to recompression chambers dealing with dive injuries in the North and South American region. Safety seminars and clinics were held at all major dive shows in North America.
DAN America includes the United States, Canada and Central and South America. DAN is the seed for the formation of similar international organizations, such as DAN Europe, DAN Japan, DAN Asia Pacific and DAN Southern Africa. These organizations communicate daily about patient referral and transport. DAN provides resources (funds, people, training and materials) to establish medical emergency assistance hotlines for divers in remote locations and developing nations. Translations of diving medicine materials and articles are available in many languages; Chinese, Thai and Korean translations are being developed. Future efforts will standardize services and promote greater cooperation in research, education, and data sharing.
Dive industry organizations including dive shops, resorts, and other dive businesses have the opportunity to become DAN Business Members handling DAN products, student membership, membership, DAN training as well as other opportunities for recreational divers.
The DAN development/fund-raising program encourages donor support to the DAN organization as a whole and in particular to DAN Research, The DAN Endowment, four DAN granting programs as well as other directed outreach programs. DAN Development works with all fund-raising initiatives and events as well as appeals and coordinates funding received through foundations, memorial gifts and matching gifts.
For more information about DAN, see http://www.DiversAlertNetwork.org.
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Dan Orr, MS
President and CEO
Office: (919) 684-2948 x601
E-mail: dorr@dan.duke.edu
DAN Vice Presidents
L. Anthony Bacci, B.E., MBA, Vice President of Marketing
Joel Dovenbarger, BSN, Vice President of Medical Services
Cindi Easterling, M.Ed., Vice President of CME & Special Services
Beth Hawkins, MAC, CPA, Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer
Richard Moon, M.D., Senior Medical Advisor
Jeff Myers, B.A., Vice President of Training
Panchabi Vaithiyanathan, Ph.D., Vice President of IT and Chief Information Officer
Richard D. Vann, Ph.D., Vice President of Research
Chris Wachholz, R.N., MBA, Vice President of International DAN
DAN Directors
Petar Denoble, MD, DSc, Sr. Research Director
Eric Douglas, BA, Training Director
Renee Duncan, BA, Director of Communications
Dave Lawler, Director of Marketing
Brian Levering, BS, Director Purchasing and Materials Control
Stephannye Myers, BA, PHR, Director of Human Resources
Dan Nord, EMT-P, CHT, Director of Medical Services
Scott Norris, MBA, Director of Administration
Eileen Sahlin, Chief Development Officer
Ed Williams, CPA, Controller
DAN Services, Inc. Administrative Staff
Brian Merritt, B.S., M.Ed., President and Chief Executive Office
DAN Services, Inc. Directors
Betty Orr, MS, Director of Insurance Services
Deborah Williams, MBA, Director Membership Services
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