Current Monthly Briefing
July 2010
The NBDHMT Board of Directors held its annual meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida on June 2, 2010. As in common, it coincided with the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society's annual scientific meeting.
Several immediate items arising from the meeting that would be of interest are listed below.
- Despite the unusually high costs associated with the relocation of the Board's headquarters from New Orleans to Columbia, SC, the associated upgrading of office technologies and conversion to a largely paperless process our financial health remains very good.
- The term "qualifying vocation" has been changed to "qualifying pathway". This is largely semantics but does more accurately reflect the process by which each CHT applicants professional eligibility is considered.
- A DMT is not a qualifying vocation/pathway for CHT. To qualify as a CHT one must have completed an NBDHMT approved hyperbaric medicine training course. Certification as a DMT is based upon completion of a diver-medic training course. These two training processes address very different goals and objectives.
- A Board administered DMT certification examination remains on track for early 2011. Board approved DMT instructors will be kept updated as this initiative nears completion.
- A record 45 CHT and CHRN testing sites were convened over the past 12 months.
- A CHT certification program in veterinary technology continues to evolve. This initiative is headed up by Dennis Geiser, a veterinary surgeon based in Knoxville, TN. He attended the meeting and updated his committee's progress. We are aiming for the first examination in 2011.
A number of other decisions were made and a series of "Action Items" established. I will continue to update you on these and other events by way of these Monthly Briefings.
On a final and particularly sad note, I want to advise you that Pauline Poletti passed away recently. Pauline had suffered cancer for a little more than a year and had done so bravely. As many of you will appreciate, Pauline was a huge part of the Board's administrative activities for almost two decades. She was fiercely loyal and had absolute "ownership" of her responsibilities and duties. She was uniformly considered helpful and supportive by all those who interacted with her on certification and related matters. The Department of Defense did fly her son home from the Middle East to be by her side in her final days. The Board of Directors extends its deepest and heartfelt sympathies to Pauline's family during this difficult period.
Dick Clarke, CHT, President
National Board of Diving & Hyperbaric Medical Technology