Dive doctors flock to Bali for health conference

This week. the South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society’s (SPUMS) 53rd Annual Scientific Meeting will take place in Candidasa on Bali’s east coast. The conference, held at the Ramayana Candidasa, has attracted 150 delegates and guests, with approximately 80 delegates diving each morning before afternoon scientific sessions.

Each year at the SPUMS scientific conference, speakers present on important health and safety issues for snorkelers and divers and emerging new treatments for dive-related illnesses. This year’s operational and scientific program; ‘Oxygen – Too little, too Much or just right’, is being convened by Dr Xavier Vrijdag and Dr Hanna van Waart.

According to convenors; “The focus of this year’s conference is oxygen in diving and hyperbaric medicine. We will discuss the benefits and risks of oxygen by having too little (hypoxia), too much (oxygen toxicity) or just the right amount (during diving or for treatment of divers and illnesses)."

Bali’s dive medical community is also represented at the conference, with local dive medicine practitioner Andrea Wiljaya presenting to delegates on East Bali’s Hyperbaric Unit. Keynote speakers at the conference are Dr Bruce Derrick and Dr Pieter-Jan Ooij.

Dr Derrick is currently an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Assistant Professor in Anaesthesiology, Centre for Hyperbaric Medicine & Environmental Physiology at Duke University. His research focuses on the use of nutritional ketosis for the mitigation of central nervous system oxygen toxicity.

Pieter-Jan van Ooij is an accomplished diving medicine physician with over 30 years of experience, primarily within the Royal Netherlands Navy. He currently serves as the Head of the Research, Innovation & Education Department at the Navy’s Diving Medical Centre. His research has advanced knowledge in areas such as pulmonary function in divers, oxygen toxicity, and decompression procedures.

This is not SPUMS’ debut in Bali. Few places in the South Pacific have large enough conference facilities for this number of delegates, as well as a dive centre with capacity for 80 divers, and spectacular diving each day from a single location to a variety of diverse dive sites.

Bali has been chosen as a conference venue several times before because it can deliver these three ingredients, as well as stunning landscapes, a colourful and fascinating culture, delicious food and the warm welcoming friendly Balinese themselves. For the many Australian and international delegates and guests, it’s also very easy to get to and reasonably priced.

All of these factors have contributed to this year’s large number of attendees, and a general increase in SPUMS membership - the society now boasts over 430 members.

The mammoth task of taking over 80 people diving each day for five days, to five of Bali’s signature dive locations; Tulamben Bay, Amed, Candidasa, Nusa Penida and Padang Bai, is being managed by Bali Dive Academy. The accommodation, conference facilities, catering and dive operations have been organised by dive specialist travel agency, Diveplanit Travel.

Diveplanit’s Simon Mallender said, “It’s been great to be able to deliver a Bali dive experience for this large group of influential diving doctors. Managing an event of this size brings challenges for a small business such as ours, but I’m proud to say the team has stepped up to this challenge, bringing innovation that also enhances our day-to-day business operations.”

Diveplanit founder Deborah Dickson-Smith adds; “It’s wonderful to be back in Bali, and to see this project, a year in the
making, come to fruition. Huge thanks also to staff and management at the Ramayana and Bali Diving
Academy, we could not have done this without their attention to detail and consistent support. I just
hope I can sneak out for a few dives myself!”

About DivePlanit Travel

DivePlanit Travel is a specialist scuba diving travel agency and wholesaler. Its founders, Deborah Dickson-Smith and Simon Mallender, are scuba divers and passionate ocean advocates, whose main mission is to encourage people to see first-hand how incredible the underwater world is, and care more about it. 

Specialising in tailor-made diving holidays, the Diveplanit team pride themselves on finding the best travel combination for each client, taking care of everything from airfares and accommodation to dive equipment and transfers.