DAN Research is a component of DAN that focuses exclusively on building our knowledge of dive medicine and increasing dive safety within the industry through various dedicated studies. With the combined forces of the regional offices over the last decades, our knowledge base has grown to be quite formidable and includes studies on flying after diving, aging and dive health, diabetes and diving as well as general dive safety.
 
But DAN wants to do more than compile this research. We want to share it with our members and partners. We do this in a variety of ways, including uploading the studies to our website and sharing it with the public in our publications (DAN Annual Diving Report, Alert Diver and dive safety booklets) and via our workshops, conferences and online seminars. We want our members and partners to be knowledgeable of dive safety, so make use of this incredible resource right at your fingertips! Remember, your membership dues are what make this research possible.

Since 1994, DAN Europe has been conducting several research projects on medicine and physiology in diving. The results obtained by our researchers have become a point of reference for the international medical diving community. DAN members helps continue this important mission: research activity is fully funded by the subscription fees of DAN members.

‘'Participated'' science! You too can get involved and become a DAN Research Diver!
DAN has challenged the scuba diving community, in a unique way: to achieve greater understanding on diving conditions with the help and active participation of scuba divers themselves. Volunteers from Europe have been involved in collecting data according to scientifically and epidemiologically appropriate methodologies. Now it's time that the Southern African divers also get the opportunity to participate in DAN research. Thus, the DAN Diving Research Laboratory (DSL) database is collecting and analysing hundreds of thousands of real dives, which allow investigation on a number of different aspects of diving safety. The DAN DSL is a real mobile research laboratory, making all the necessary tools for field diving data gathering available. DSL offers various participation levels to allow volunteers to get involved in investigating dive safety. At the end of the day everyone can participate. 
“We believe in scuba divers, in their hunger for knowledge and their ability and attention to safety concerns.” (Professor Alessandro Marroni, President of DAN Europe).

DAN Europe is committed to a wide range of medical research and investigates many different aspects of diving. The following list includes examples of our research projects: 

• Gathering data on and analysing circulating gas bubbles.
• The economy of decompression: identification of the best ascent profile.
• Investigating the causes of unexplained diving incidents.
• Stress in recreational diving.
• PFO (Patent Foramen Ovale) and risk of DCI (Decompression Illness).
• Asthma, diabetes and diving.
• Physiology and pathophysiology of breath-hold in adults and children.
• Hypothermia and diving.
• Headache and diving.
• Diving and blood changes.
• Air travel after diving.
• Rebreather diving physiology.
• Decompression stress, endothelial stem cells and blood cells.
• Early decompression stress biomarkers.
• Normobaric oxygen and its effects on blood and in DCI first aid.
• SkiScubaSpace, a study conducted in collaboration with ALTEC to investigate human physiology in extreme environments (high mountains, water, space).

The most advanced tools in dive analysis!

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