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		UNDERSEA & HYPERBARIC MEDICAL SOCIETY Pacific Chapter 2007 Conference Faculty


		Matthew S. Berry, MD, FACP, FAAEP has lectured internationally on various aspects of underwater medicine. He received his M.D. from Tufts Medical School in 1986 and completed his post-graduate training at LAC-USC Medical Center and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Dr. Berry is board certified in Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine and Hyperbaric Medicine. He practices medicine at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, West Los Angeles and is on faculty at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He is Kaiser Permanente's Resource Physician for Underwater & Hyperbaric Medicine, an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCLA and the Vice President of the American Academy of Emergency Physicians. He is also a NAUI Dive Instructor, an avid underwater photographer and has won international photography competitions. He received NAUI's 2005 Charlie Brown Memorial Award for his volunteer service to the diving community. Dr. Berry is the current Executive Director and a past President (2001) of UHMS-Pacific Chapter.


		Scott Cassell has made hundreds of dives with Humboldt squid. He wears a special handmade wet suit for protection. He is a former Army combat medic, counterterrorism operator and a special operations veteran. The Escondido resident was the youngest rated commercial diver in the United States when he began underwater welding and construction at age 15. Scott has six documentaries about Humboldt squid that air periodically on Animal Planet, the BBC and the Discovery and Disney channels.


		Petar J. Denoble, M.D., D.Sc. is a Senior Research Director for DAN. Dr. Denoble is involved with development of new studies diving safety, oversees ongoing studies and monitors their progress. He is currently the touchstone at DAN for Project Dive Exploration and the DAN Injury Database. He coordinates development of software tools for data collection, management and analysis within DAN Research and coordinates standardization of data with dive computer manufacturers. He also works on integration and harmonization of research data management processes within International DAN.


		Karen Elaine is a professional violinist and a PADI Dive instructor. She traveled to Antarctica where she played music and had amazing interactions with the King Penguins.


		Lorre Henderson, OD, MD, FACS completed Optometry School at the University of Houston in 1976 and practiced optometry in Houston, Texas for several years. He received his M.D. from the University of Texas Medical School at Houston in 1981, completed two years of General Surgery followed by three years of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at Hermann Hospital and M.D. Anderson Hospital & Tumor Institute in Houston. Dr. Henderson has been in private otolaryngology practice in the San Francisco Bay Area since completing his residency in 1986. He was in hyperbaric medicine in the Bay Area for 10 years. He is board-certified in Optometry, Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery and Undersea & Hyperbaric Medicine. He has been an active diver since 1970 and lectures nationally and internationally on otolaryngologic problems related to diving.


		Karl E. Huggins, PhD, has been the program manager for the Catalina Hyperbaric Facility at the USC Wrigley Science Center since 1992. He began diving in 1977 and has been a NAUI Instructor since 1980. He is noted for his work in decompression theory and models, which resulted in the Michigan Sea Grant (HUGI) tables and his participation in the development of the EDGE dive computer. Karl is the recipient of the Leonard Greenstone Diving Safety Award and the DAN/Rolex Diver of the year for 1993.




		Edmund Kay, MD, FAAFP - was a field medic with the U. S. Marines in Vietnam (1968), receiving a Purple Heart. He received his B.S. (Summa Cum Lauda) from UCSD and his M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco. He completed his Diving and Hyperbaric training at NOAA in 1988. For the last 23 years doc has been a Board Certified Family Physician devoted to the practice of Family Medicine and Diving Medicine in Seattle. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor, Diving Medical Officer for the University of Washington, a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and Medical Director of the Divers Institute in Seattle. Dr. Kay authored the first Diving Medicine web site, which is now in its seventh year of continuous operation. Doc is also past president of the King County Academy of Family Physicians. He is currently a regional diving medical consultant for DAN and has been diving for 30 years.



		Ken Kurtis is a dive instructor and owner of Reef Seekers.


		Ralph Potkin, MD received his medical degree from Chicago Medical School in 1975. His post graduate training included a residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowships in Cardiology and pulmonary medicine, all at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Hyperbaric Medicine. Dr. Potkin is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the UCLA School of Medicine and is the Medical Director of the Beverly Hills Center for Hyperbaric Medicine. His facility is the only nationally accredited independent hyperbaric medical center in the entire United States. Dr. Potkin is an expert scuba diver and he has explored underwater many areas of the globe including the Antarctica. He serves as a medical advisor to the Dive Alert Network and has a special interest in Scuba Diving and asthma. Presently, Dr. Potkin is the physician for the United States Breath-Hold team and is actively involved in clinical research of heart, lung and brain function in these amazing elite athletes

		Dick Sample, RCP, RRT, CHT began working in hyperbaric medicine in 1983 after a ten-year career as a respiratory care practitioner specializing in adult critical care and management. He has been employed at Loma Linda University Medical Center, a 900-bed level 1 trauma center in southern California since 1973. In 1990 he became technical director and in 2003 safety director. Dick is a licensed Respiratory Care Practitioner, Registered Respiratory Therapist and Certified Hyperbaric Technician. He is a member of the American Association for Respiratory Care, California Society for Respiratory Care, Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, Hyperbaric Technicians and Nurses Association, Association for the Advancement of Wound Care, and currently serves on the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society Associates Executive Board where he also acts as Scientific Program Chairperson. He has lectured internationally on hyperbaric and wound care topics, and has won several abstract presentation awards. Dick is the Secretary of the UHMS-Pacific Chapter.

		Robert B. Schoene, MD is president of the Wilderness Medicine Society and professor in the University of Washington department of medicine. A graduate of Princeton and Columbia University School of Medicine, he has served as climber-scientist on a medical research expedition to Everest and researcher on two Denali medical research projects.

		J. Benjamin Slade, MD is currently the Associate Medical Director for Hyperbaric Medicine at three northern California hospitals, based at Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo, CA, and works part time in the Center for Wound Care at Vaca Valley Hospital in Vacaville, CA. He is board certified in Family Practice and Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine. A member of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS), Dr. Slade is currently the chairman of the Membership Committee, and serves as a member of the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and Education Committees. He is past-President of the Pacific Coast Chapter of the UHMS. He is a frequent speaker on hyperbaric medicine-related topics, and has multiple publications.

		Michael Strauss, MD, FACS is Director of the Baromedical Department, Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. He is an internationally recognized expert on wound healing. He is the recipient of the 2003 Carolyn Sue Ray Memorial Award in recognition of excellence in hyperbaric medicine, original research and it's impact on patient care.


		Morgan Wells, PhD is an internationally recognized pioneer in Underwater Sciences. Dr. Wells began diving at the age of 14, after making his own surface-supplied diving system out of a paint sprayer and a motor scooter engine. Two years later, he made an oxygen re-breather from war surplus parts by following diagrams in the U.S. Navy Diving Manual, and by the age of 19, he was teaching scuba classes at the college level. During his illustrious career, he has worked as a Medical School Professor, Research Physiologist, Science Coordinator for NOAA's Manned Underwater Science and Technology office, and as the Director of NOAA's EDU and Diving Programs. Dr. Wells is known for having lived on the ocean floor in saturation habitats longer and in more different systems than any other diver. He has dived in numerous locations from the Pacific to the Artic. Dr. Wells has designed and developed underwater diving systems and has developed tables used to determine gas mixtures for divers. He is the course director of the NOAA/UHMS/USRF Physicians Training in Diving Medicine, the worlds’ premier physicians’ underwater medicine training course.