UHMS STEM OPPORTUNITY
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: APRIL 30, 2024: 5 PM ET
UHMS ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC MEETING
JUNE 13-15, 2024
Crowne Plaza New Orleans- French Qtr - Astor, New Orleans, Louisiana
The primary goal of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society’s (UHMS) Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) each year is to provide a forum for exchanging ideas and scientific knowledge related to increased pressures on human physiology.
Participants can expect to increase their knowledge of how humans perform in undersea environments utilizing various gas mixtures and the risks associated with operating in extreme environments.
Participants will also increase their knowledge of clinical hyperbaric medicine and how increased pressures and oxygen can improve patient outcomes in certain disease states, conditions, and traumatic injuries.
UHMS STEM Learning Opportunity
The UHMS STEM Learning Opportunity provides individuals with tuition-free admittance to the UHMS ASM.
STEM scholarships are awarded to applicants in high school, college, or university-level students interested in science, technology, engineering, or math-related careers.
Candidates must complete an application and a 300-word essay. At the conclusion of the meeting, candidates are required to complete an exit interview and a survey on their experience.
STEM scholarship awardees can expect to shadow top scientists and physicians in academia and medicine, complete projects and summaries, and do media wrap-ups each day.
Deadline for submissions: April 30, 2024: 5 pm ET
Sponsorship Opportunity
The UHMS is looking to academia and industry to help support the UHMS STEM Learning Opportunity, including sponsoring the STEM Career Breakfast.
Current Sponsors
Who we are
The Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) was formed in 1967. It is an international non-profit association serving 2,000 physicians, scientists, associates, and nurses from more than 67 countries in hyperbaric and dive medicine.
The UHMS is an essential source of scientific and medical information about undersea and hyperbaric medicine through its quarterly peer-reviewed journal, Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine, as well as symposia, courses, certifications, workshops, and publications.
It organizes an annual scientific meeting at different U.S. and international sites to permit review of the latest in research and treatment and to promote the highest standards of practice.
Testimonials
Undergraduate research became an important cornerstone for me, allowing me to immerse myself in scientific investigation and discovery which I hoped to integrate into clinical practice as a future physician-scientist. This experience could be defined as one word, “ICONIC”, denoting the investigation, collaboration, operation, navigation, inspiration, and communication involved to ensure successful contribution to the research community. Joining Dr. Papadopoulou’s Team SCUBA within the Dayton Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill gave me a deeper perspective of the intricacies of scientific endeavors by studying decompression sickness in affected individuals in pressurized environments, specifically underwater. This enabled me to develop innovative biomedical analysis tools to share with other researchers and healthcare providers as they work toward the improvement of current preventative and personalized treatment measures. Throughout this process, I realized that research was an umbrella term, capturing the vastness and diversity of fields prompted by curiosity. This became clear as I worked alongside principal investigator Dr. Virginie Papadopoulou, post-doctoral researcher Dr. Arian Azarang, researcher Dr. David Le, field experts, clinicians, and other research-driven individuals of varying academic disciplines throughout the world. The multidisciplinary team’s insight became a source of inspiration for me to design novel experimental protocols to push the limits of what I knew and what society currently understood. Research not only became the pivotal symbol for discovering new ideas but also a beacon for connecting individuals from different backgrounds with similar interests. Sharing my research work with the rest of the scientific community at the annual Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Society (UHMS) conference also not only allowed me to converse with pioneers and leaders in the field but also enabled me to learn about current important challenges being addressed globally. Improving the current understanding of the physiology and injury risk of divers during deep dives helped other researchers deepen their perspective on astronauts in a similar, but different pressurized environment. This conference became a source of inspiration for me to pursue a career where I could explore the unknown as I continue on my personal and professional journey toward becoming a healthcare professional.
As a first year MD PhD student at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, I am very excited to prepare for a future career as a surgeon scientist. While I am still early on in my medical school journey, and I am interested in learning more about all subspecialties of cardiothoracic surgery, I feel my background in engineering has led to an interest in robotic thoracic surgery, which I would like to further explore. I first developed an interest in the heart as an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Papadopoulou’s team where I analyzed datasets for an ultrasound comparison study, which compared two 2D ultrasound devices (Vivid q, GE Healthcare, and Butterfly iQ, Butterfly Network) and one sub-clavicular doppler device (O-dive, Azoth- Systems) used to monitor post-dive venous gas emboli (VGE) in healthy divers, with the end goal of finding a more portable device to obtain echocardiographic data in low resource settings to better understand intrasubject variability in VGE post-dive. I learned how to collect physiological data and mitigate errors in acquisition, performed ultrasound on subjects during field experiments, analyzed all of the echocardiographic recordings and performed statistics, and conducted a literature review on ultrasound methods/devices. I also wrote a first-author journal paper on the results of this study. While I found many aspects of this fulfilling, one the most unique and interesting opportunities I had as an undergraduate student was presenting a poster on this study at the UHMS conference. Engaging with various members and learning more about new research being conducted in the field truly helped me better appreciate the inextricable nature of scientific research and clinical practice. The presentation, communication and scientific skills I learned through this experience were truly invaluable and further motivated me to become a surgeon scientist. Eventually my desire to learn more about the anatomy and physiology of the heart, combined with my passion for advancing research and conducting hands-on procedures led to me applying for MD PhD programs, with the eventual goal of applying to an integrated CT residency program. I am truly grateful for the time I spent in Dr. Papadopoulou’s “SCUBA” research team, the skills I learned, the support I received and the experiences I gained, especially attending the UHMS conference.