The Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Fellowship is a civilian partnership program between Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) and the University of California - San Diego Medical Center (UCSD).  Navy physicians selected to participate in this fellowship program are considered Full-Time Inservice (FTIS) trainees assigned to NMCSD for administrative support with UCSD as the Sponsoring Institution and primary training site.    

Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Fellowship

The UCSD Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Fellowship is designed to provide board-certified or board-eligible physicians licensed in the US the opportunity to be educated and trained in the theory and practice of diving and hyperbaric medicine. Individuals successfully completing the one-year ACGME accredited fellowship should obtain sufficient didactic and practical knowledge to work efficiently and competently in a hyperbaric clinical and research environment and to act in a supervisory capacity of a hyperbaric chamber.

Overview

The UCSD Fellowship in Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine is a 12-month fellowship that incorporates training in all aspects of hyperbaric and diving medicine. Each fellow spends 4-6 months at UCSD on the hyperbaric medicine service, 3-4 months at our UCSD Wound Care Centers, dedicated research time, 2 weeks at the UHMS Physicians in Diving Medicine Training course, elective time, and 4 weeks of vacation. The program is designed to train 2-3 fellows annually; there are at least 5 hours per week of planned educational experiences and the fellows participate in formal didactic teaching programs and teach undersea and hyperbaric medicine to medical students, residents, and community organizations. The fellowship program is closely associated with the UCSD Department of Emergency Medicine Residency Program. 

The UCSD hyperbaric chamber is a large multiplace chamber at UCSD Medical Center Hillcrest that is capable of treating the full range of conditions amenable to hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The staff is on call 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Hillcrest is a Level 1 Trauma Center and the Regional Burn Center. Full outpatient facilities are available at UCSD including clinics in orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery, vascular surgery, and wound care. 

The UCSD Occupational and Environmental Medicine Center serves as the outpatient clinic for our Diving Medicine Clinic. Our fellows perform fitness to dive evaluations for commercial and scientific divers, as well as medical clearance for sport divers. They also evaluate for return-to-diving exams after dive injuries or problems. The UCSD Hyperbaric Medicine & Wound Care Center in Encinitas operates an additional multiplace chamber and wound care clinic. The San Diego Regional Poison Center is located at UCSD Medical Center and provides 24-hour on-call services for carbon monoxide poisoning.

Collaborations

The UCSD Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine fellowship is very proud of their ongoing collaboration with Divers Alert Network (DAN) and incredibly grateful for their support in the education of future experts in diving medicine. In addition to their financial support, DAN hosts our fellows for a week long rotation at their headquarters in Durham, NC.  We also participate in monthly case discussions of diving medicine cases.  The exposure to the resources of DAN and their breadth of volume and experience in diving medicine is vital to the education of our fellows.

Additional Information

For additional program information and curriculum content, please visit the UCSD Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Fellowship website located at:  https://emergencymed.ucsd.edu/education/fellowships/hyperbaric-medicine/index.html