Responsibilities of National Coordinators

The DIVEMEDREG databank contains names and addresses of diving medicine physicians in Europe and the rest of the world. The conditions to be registered are clearly defined. To give this databank the credibility needed to be useful for the diving industry as well as for divers seeking a physician for their medical, appropriate training and competency of the listed doctors must be assured. This databank is hosted at the Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento Sant'Anna, Pisa (SSSA Pisa) and patronaged by the International Diving Medical Expert Board IDMEB. In order to respect the diversity of national regulations and cultural differences between European countries and including those in the rest of the world, each country contributing doctors to the databank is represented at the board by a "National Coordinator" (NC) who assesses the candidates applications and who approves their registration at the databank, with eventual backup by the IDMEB. NCs are nominated by the IDMEB serving as liaison officers in their country: - They are either medical delegate of the European Diving Technology Committee EDTC, representing their country, otherwise they can be individuals appointed by the national health or labour authorities to fulfil the above-mentioned tasks. Sometimes, an institution or a committee may take this place as well, as long as they are designated by the national authorities or, if not provided, at least by the scientific society for diving and hyperbaric medicine of the country. - The national coordinators have an appropriate competency in diving medicine, which is published on the website. - The NC knows all available training courses and institutions of his/her country including the syllabus and degree of accordance with the EDTC/ECHM training standards for diving medicine. - NC will inform the IDMEB of new national educational programs including courses of EDTC/ECHM Level1 or higher (documented by the syllabus, number of hours and address of responsible course director). - The NC knows the national legislation and norms regulating the certification of divers/compressed air workers for their aptitude to work under pressure - The NC knows eventual national listings of MEDs who are accredited by the authorities or legitimated to undertake the medical assessment of occupational divers. NC are deciding upon registration of candidates according to the published instructions, which are published on the website. Note that medical doctors that do not fulfil the training and credentialing requirements set by the IDMEB may still be designated to certify divers IN THEIR COUNTRY, however, the IDMEB looks at international accreditation and therefore everyone who is registered on this databank would be required to comply with the standards that are set by EDTC/ECHM and DMAC. In case of disagreement, the candidate may appeal to the IDMEB. A jury of not involved or biased experts will then decide definitely.