Your interest in DAN's Project Dive Exploration (PDE) is the first step toward helping DAN provide information to make diving safer. Data collection events are sponsored by dive computer manufacturers worldwide, with locations chosen by mutual agreement between DAN and the manufacturers.

Currently, Project Dive Exploration is in its pilot stage. The primary goals during this crucial period will be to:

• refine the data collection process and in-house handling of the data at DAN Headquarters;
• train FRCs and recompression chambers to use Diving Data System;
• organize and set up Data Collection Centers throughout the world; and
• prove to the dive industry that Project Dive Exploration will be beneficial to all parties involved.

What is Project Dive Exploration (PDE)?

PDE is an observational research study designed to collect and analyze dive profile data on real dives, and to compile data on behavioral and health aspects associated with recreational diving. This will establish a recreational diving database to be a resource for research in dive safety. The study analyzes the dive profiles, as recorded by a depth/time recorder, of each dive. The diver's health status is also verified 48 hours after exiting the water.

What are the objectives of Project Dive Exploration?

PDE has multiple objectives, including:

• Collecting real-time depth/time profiles for analysis;
• Documenting the condition of the diver 48 hours after the end of the dive series;
• Documenting any health changes in the diver, whether related to diving or not;
• Investigating the relationship between diving and health effects by using statistical analysis and modeling;
• Developing a flexible, low-risk decompression procedures for multi-level/ multi-day repetitive diving; and
• Studying the effects of flying after diving.

PDE will be conducted wherever diving occurs throughout the world. Resorts, retail stores, charter boats, live-aboards, instructors and divemasters will serve as coordinators by accepting forms and uploaded information from study participants.

Who may participate?

Any certified diver can participate in PDE. Divers are responsible for filling out forms, completing the interviews, assisting the FRC with uploading the computers, and sending the 48-Hour Report Form to DAN.

How will the study be conducted?

Field Research Coordinators (FRCs) have been trained to collect data. They will describe the methods and objectives of Project Dive Exploration to volunteer participants, ask them to enter the study and donate their profiles, and collect personal data, medical history information, and dive profiles from the participants.

Participants will be instructed to dive normally, as they have been trained, and according to their own dive plans. The FRC will provide no advice on how to conduct the dives. The FRC will give divers a slate to carry underwater for recording start-of-dive times and maximum depth. This slate will be returned to the FRC at the end of the dive.

After the dive, the divers will assist the FRC with uploading the dive profile data to a personal computer. Periodically, the FRC will conduct interviews to ask how the divers feel. Approximate interview times are: before diving - to establish a baseline to report any pre-existing aches and pains; within one hour after diving; at the end of the day; and prior to departure for home.

If there is nothing to report, and there is no change from before the dive, this will be noted by the FRC. ALL signs and symptoms, even those unrelated to diving (such as sunburn), should be reported.

Before divers leave for home, the FRC will provide a 48 Hour Report Form to be completed after the last dive or flight. On this form, the diver will describe how he/she feels at this juncture - noting any aches, pains, or any other symptoms. The completed form should then be mailed to DAN.

All data provided is privileged scientific/medical information. The diver's identity will not be released to anyone without the divers permission.

What is a Field Research Coordinator (FRC)?

The Field Research Coordinator (FRC) is a field data collector. FRCs are responsible for collecting completed research forms from participating divers, uploading data from dive computers, and sending the data to DAN.

Who may be a FRC?

The Field Research Coordinator must be a certified divemaster (or higher) with current CPR, first aid, and DAN Oxygen Provider certification, or equivalent. FRCs must maintain liability insurance with their certifying agency, and must have completed a DAN Field Research Coordinator Course. Click here for upcoming course schedules, or refer to a recent edition of the Alert Diver magazine.

Funding

The Project Dive Exploration/Field Data Acquisition Project is currently supported by DAN, with additional support from dive computer manufacturers and the divers providing the dive profiles. There is no other funding source.

All Field Research Coordinators (FRCs) are volunteers. They are not compensated for their function as FRCs. The FRCs are not DAN employees or staff members, nor should they be expected to have the same knowledge or expertise that DAN staff in the Medical, Research and Training Departments have in diving medicine.

Who do I contact for more information?

Call DAN Research at (919) 684-2948, ext. 260 or Email: SAshley@dan.duke.edu

For scuba divers worldwide DAN means safety, health, and peace of mind. DAN is a non-profit dive safety organization affiliated with Duke University Medical Center and supported by the largest membership association of divers in the world. DAN's vision is to be the most recognized and trusted organization worldwide in the fields of diver safety and emergency services, health, research and education by its members, instructors, sponsors and recreational diving community at large. Omni Divers Underwater Services is proud to be a DAN Bronze Sponsor.

DAN Classes Offered by Omni Divers Underwater Services:

• DAN Oxygen First Aid for Scuba Diving Injuries (02)
• DAN Remote Emergency Medical Oxygen (REM02)

Class Schedule, Locations and Checklist:

• DAN Oxygen First Aid for Scuba Diving Injuries Checklist
• DAN O2 and DAN REM02 Schedules
• DAN O2 and DAN REM02 Potential Class Locations

DAN members receive exclusive dive and travel benefits:

• 24-hour dive emergency hotline and medical information line based at Duke University Medical Center
• Automatic $100,000 emergency medical evacuation
• Medical expense advances up to $5,000
• Eligibility for up to $125,000 dive accident insurance converage, plus a total of $35,000 additional coverage for AD&D, lost dive equipment, loss of airline ticket, and extra accommodations
• Subscription to award-winning Alert Diver magazine
• Eligibility for diving's only emergency ID - the DAN tag
• Membership in the world's largest association of divers, supporting vital research and services that benefit DAN members and all recreational divers