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RESEARCH, EDUCATION & MEDICINE
RESEARCHER PROFILE
50
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FALL 2016
David Doolette
By Petar Denoble, M.D.,
D.Sc.
A
research physiologist in the biomedical
research department at the U.S. Navy
Experimental Diving Unit (NEDU)
and an assistant professor in the
anesthesiology department at Duke
University School of Medicine, David
J. Doolette, Ph.D., is also an advanced technical and cave
diver, an educator and a public speaker. Well published
in scientific journals, he has helped make significant
advances in the science of diving for more than 20 years.
Born and educated in Australia, Doolette did his
postdoctoral research on blood flow and the transport
of gases, drugs and physiological substances to
tissues and organs such as the brain, heart, lungs and
muscles. He became an expert in modeling the effects
of blood-flow changes and variations in substance-
loading parameters, which is ideal for the study of gas
transfer during compression and decompression. While
researchers with these skills are in high demand in
clinical physiology and pharmacology, Doolette made
his way to diving physiology.
After he became a diver, Doolette wanted to apply his
skills to the science of diving. Decompression illness (DCI)
has various forms and degrees of severity, and diagnosis
of DCI in field studies based on self-reporting is elusive.
Doolette developed a tool to measure health status in divers
and calibrated it to diagnose DCI. This tool was later used
to study and improve safety for various groups of divers.
He published several studies modeling various
aspects of saturation and desaturation before joining
the team at the NEDU. Since then he has been in
the vanguard of research and development of safe
decompression procedures. We appreciate his
willingness to tell us more about his work.
David Doolette visits the hyperbaric
facilities at the Swedish Armed Forces
Diving and Naval Medicine Centre.
NEAL POLLOCK