Presentations included:
Decompression illness by Prof Simon Mitchell, Head of Department of Anaesthesiology, University of Auckland
Professor Simon Mitchell works as an anaesthesiologist at Auckland City Hospital, a diving physician at North Shore Hospital (Auckland), and is Professor of Anaesthesiology at the University of Auckland. For the last 3 years he has been ranked by Expertscape.com as the world’s foremost expert in both decompression sickness and air embolism. Simon co-authored the hyperbaric and diving medicine chapter for the last four editions of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. He has invited review articles in The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine, and has been Editor-in-Chief of Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine Journal since 2018. Simon has a long career in sport, scientific, commercial, and military diving. He was first to dive and identify three historic deep shipwrecks in Australia and New Zealand, including one in 2002 which was the deepest wreck dive undertaken worldwide at the time. He was conferred Fellowship of the Explorers’ Club of New York in 2006, and was the Rolex Diver of the Year in 2015.
A recent publication by Prof Mitchell providing a comprehensive overview of decompression illness is available here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11168797/
Immersion pulmonary oedema by Dr Neil Banham, President, South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society; WA Health - Fiona Stanley Hospital Hyperbaric Medicine Unit
Dr. Neil Banham has been a keen scuba diver since gaining his Open Water Certification at age 16. Besides diving in Western Australia (Rottnest and Carnac Islands, Esperance, Rowley Shoals), he has dived some amazing places in Australia (Cocos Keeling Islands, Christmas Island, Lord Howe Island, Great Barrier Reef) and overseas (Palau, Bali, Solomons, PNG, Malaysia, Tahiti, Bora Bora, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, South Africa….) - many of these overseas destinations with the South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society (SPUMS). Neil has been President of SPUMS since 2020 and convened their 2014 Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) in Bali and was Scientific Convenor for the 2024 ASM in Fiji which had a focus on PFO and diving and Immersion Pulmonary Oedema (IPO).
Neil is an emergency physician by trade but has also been working in diving and hyperbaric medicine most of his career. He was Director of Fremantle Hospital Hyperbaric Medicine Unit from 2009-2014 and then Director of the new state of the art Hyperbaric facility at Fiona Stanley Hospital, Perth from 2014 until the present. Neil is widely published in diving and hyperbaric medicine and is currently part of the team revising the SPUMS Position Statement on PFO and diving and developing one for return to diving (or not!) following an episode of IPO.
Scuba diving fatalities in Australia by Dr John Lippmann OAM, Chairman and CEO Australasian Diving Safety Foundation
Dr John Lippmann OAM began diving in 1971 and became an instructor 12 years later, specialising in diver rescue, first aid, oxygen administration and instructor education. He has authored or co-authored 16 books on diving safety, first aid and accident management, some of which have been published and distributed worldwide, as well as over 60 mainly diving-related papers published in peer-reviewed medical or scientific journals. He was the founder of the Divers Alert Network Asia-Pacific (DAN AP) which he oversaw for 25 years, being involved in managing some 1,400 dive accidents. He then established the Australasian Diving Safety Foundation (ADSF), an Australian Health Promotion Charity with a mission to reduce diving-related injuries and fatalities.
John is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Public Health and Preventative Medicine at Monash University, a Senior Research Fellow for the Royal Lifesaving Society Australia and has been made a Fellow of Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine through the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society. He has been awarded Life Membership of the South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society (SPUMS) and Life Saving Victoria.
