Medical & Fitness

DAN Welcomes 2022 Interns

L to R: Alex Balan, Beth Jones, Aaron Kissel, Liam Brennan

The DAN Internship Program was created 23 years ago to give qualified students valuable experience in dive safety research. While the program is still research-oriented, its scope has expanded over the years to include projects that focus on other facets of DAN’s mission to help divers in need and to promote dive safety through education.

These interns will spend several months at DAN headquarters in Durham, NC, working with the Research, Medical Services, and Safety Services teams on various projects and research efforts.

Nosebleeds in Scuba Diving

Well-trained divers all know that they need to equalize their ears and sinuses as they descend. Usually, this is an easy process. However, there are some medical conditions that can make this more difficult. Technical rebreather diver and underwater photographer Dr. Michael Rothschild is a pediatric ear, nose and throat specialist in New York.

DAN Asks Divers to Donate in Support of Dive Safety

When you give to DAN, you support the DAN Emergency Hotline, ensuring it stays available 24/7 to assist divers everywhere. Since it went live in 1981, the hotline has helped tens of thousands of divers in times of need.

With many people returning to the water this summer after prolonged periods away, continued operation of this essential emergency service is more important now than ever before.

DAN Travelers Medical Guide Now Available

Created to help divers, boaters, and adventure travelers recognize and manage various travel-related illnesses and injuries, this digital guide explains common symptoms, illnesses, and treatments in an easy-to-understand manner. 

“DAN members are active explorers, and they know that traveling the world requires knowledge and preparation,” said DAN president and CEO Bill Ziefle. “This new edition of the Travelers Medical Guide was designed to help our members stay safe wherever they go.”

DAN Announces New Enhanced Membership

Enhanced Membership includes all the benefits divers and travelers have come to expect from their DAN membership — plus higher coverage limits and a curated selection of additional benefits, including up to US$500,000 in emergency medical transportation and travel assistance benefits, a continuing subscription to the print edition of Alert Diver magazine, new global security evacuation coverage, new search and rescue coverage, and more.

Synoicum adareanum pictured with a starfish in 80 feet of water near Bonaparte Point, Antarctica.
Synoicum adareanum pictured with a starfish in 80 feet of water near Bonaparte Point, Antarctica.

Possible cancer drug discovered in a sea squirt

A naturally produced melanoma-fighting compound called "Palmerolide A" has been found in a microbe that lives in Synoicum adareanum, a species of ascidian common to the waters of Antarctica's Anvers Island archipelago, where it grows in small colonies.

Ascidians, or "sea squirts," are primitive, sac-like marine animals that live attached to ocean bottoms around the world, and feed on plankton by filtering seawater.

DAN Awards 2021 Bove Research Grant to Peter Buzzacott, Ph.D.

Dr. Buzzacott, formerly the director of injury monitoring and prevention at DAN, recently co-authored a paper with DAN researchers describing cardiac function in recreational divers.1

While the study contributed to our knowledge of cardiac function in healthy divers, the participants had been diving in the sea in water ranging in temperature from “bath warm” to “ice cold” and with variable depths and diver workloads.

DAN Asks for Donations in Support of Care for Injured Divers

Donate today at DAN.org/Give to support:

ON-SITE FIRST AID

DAN’s first aid training and oxygen grant programs prepare divers and dive professionals worldwide to act quickly and effectively to assist injured divers.

EXPERT MEDICAL CARE

DAN’s continuing medical education courses empower doctors and other health care professionals with the skills and knowledge they need to treat divers.

ACCESS TO CHAMBERS