2024 Advances in Wound Management Pre-course

Dick assumed the position of president of the National Board of Diving & Hyperbaric Medical Technology in January, 2009, having previously held this position from 1989-1995. Dick’s background includes service in the British Navy, diving instructor and underwater photographer at the International Underwater Explorers Society and assistant director of the seabed living program ‘Hydrolab’. In 1976, Dick was instrumental in the development of the diver medic program at the Commercial Diving Center, while employed as a saturation diving superintendent with Oceaneering International. Dick taught the diving medicine section from 1976 - 1983 and helped establish the National Association of Diver Medic Technicians, the fore runner of the NBDHMT. He wrote the Board’s first CHT exam. Over the past two decades Dick remains involved in all aspects of undersea and hyperbaric medicine, technology, education and research. His organization has trained over 6,000 healthcare professionals and he has served as a faculty member for the annual NOAA-UHMS Diving Medical Officer Training Course for the past 25 years. Dick has been active within the UHMS, chairing numerous committees and was the UHMS Associates first elected chairman. He heads a research foundation dedicated to the scientific advancement of hyperbaric medicine, and has developed an international consortium that undertakes wide-ranging controlled clinical trials.

Drue Orwig, DO, MBA is a board-certified physician specializing in Wound Care, Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine, and Emergency Medicine.  She has been practicing Wound and Hyperbaric Medicine at CoreWell Health Hospital System and has served as the Section Chief for Wound and Hyperbaric Medicine since 2017.  She serves as the Councilor for the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Chapter for the American College of Emergency Physicians and sits on the Education Committee for the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Society. She serves as the Medical Staff Secretary for the Corewell Health West Grand Rapids Hospital System. 

Her expertise include: Limb loss prevention, Hyperbaric and Dive Medicine, Advanced technologies in Wound Care.

Dr. Gelly has been involved in hyperbaric medicine and wound care since 1991. Past positions have included Medical Directorships at academic and community hyperbaric medicine and wound care programs. She started a non-hospital affiliated hyperbaric medicine center which was one of the first UHMS accredited centers. She has been actively involved in billing and reimbursement issues for both facilities and physicians. Until recently, she was the Medical Director of Hyperbaric Physicians of Georgia, a group of physicians dedicated to the practice of hyperbaric medicine and wound healing, with 5 subspecialty boarded physicians in its membership. In addition to lecturing nationally on hyperbaric medicine and wound healing for many years, she was the president of the Gulf Coast Chapter of the UHMS from 2005-2007. Currently, she serves as the Emeritus Medical Director of Hyperbaric Physicians of Georgia, and as C.E.O. for HyperbaRXs.

Dr. Shai Efrati is a professor at the School of Medicine and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. He also serves as the director of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Shamir (Assaf-Harofeh) Medical Center in Israel. Under Prof. Efrati's leadership, the center has grown to become the largest hyperbaric center worldwide, currently treating over 300 patients per day.

Dr. Efrati's expertise extends to internal medicine, nephrology, hyperbaric and diving medicine, and he holds the position of Director of Research & Development at the Shamir Medical Center, affiliated with Tel-Aviv University. Driven by his passion for physiology and thermodynamics, particularly in understanding the physiological barriers that hinder organ function, he initiated a research program focusing on neuroplasticity—the regeneration of damaged brain tissue. This research aims to treat the brain as a tissue, identifying and characterizing non-healing brain wounds and the bottlenecks that impede recovery.