SPUMS ASM 2027

Dumaguete, Philippines

Scientific programme

Theme: Innovations in Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine

Keynote Speakers:

A/Prof Virginie Papadopoulou
An Associate Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr Papadopoulou leads a multidisciplinary laboratory (“ENHANCE”) of 15 researchers including research faculty, postdoctoral fellows, PhD students, and undergraduate trainees. Her research program is supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of Naval Research (ONR), NASA, industry partners, and the Divers Alert Network research foundation.

Dr. Papadopoulou has more than 14 years of experience in undersea decompression physiology and biomedical ultrasound technology development, with research spanning contrast-enhanced ultrasound, therapeutic ultrasound, and ultrasonic detection of decompression-related gas emboli. She currently serves as Principal Investigator on federally funded projects investigating ultrasound-stimulated phase-change contrast agents for infected wound therapy and the development of advanced ultrasound technologies to mitigate decompression sickness risk in divers and other extreme-environment populations. In parallel with her research activities, she has contributed extensively to efforts supporting workforce development and evaluation of the PhD pipeline in undersea medicine and related STEM disciplines.

Dr Calina Ouliaris

Dr Calina Ouliaris is a consultant psychiatrist and scuba diving instructor. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, with subspecialty training in forensic psychiatry and a background in legal practice. Her clinical practice focuses particularly on neurodivergence, including ADHD and autism, while her broader work has centred on complex areas where clinical, legal and ethical considerations intersect.

More recently, her academic work has focused on mental health and fitness to dive, an emerging area within diving medicine. She leads an international research collaboration in this field, which has undertaken a structured review of current evidence and developed the SURFACE framework, an approach to fitness-to-dive assessment where mental health or neurodevelopmental factors may be relevant.

Calina is also co-founder of Journey Underwater, through which she co-developed Dive In®, a framework that explores scuba diving as a somatic practice and is delivered through retreats, tailored diving experiences and online courses.

 Joint Position Statement Workshop: Mental Health and Neurodevelopmental factors relevant to recreational fitness to dive assessment

Guest Speakers:

Dr Bram Querido

Dr Bram Querido is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and Medical Examiner of Divers (MED Level 1) based in the Netherlands. For more than 30 years, his clinical work has focused on the psychotherapeutic treatment of people with complex trauma and related psychiatric conditions.

He is a board member of the Dutch Society for Diving Medicine (NVD) and teaches psychiatry and neurology in postgraduate diving medicine education. He is also an experienced diver and PADI Staff Instructor.

His academic work lies at the intersection of psychiatry and diving medicine, with a particular focus on the distinction between psychiatric diagnosis and classification, and on translating psychiatric knowledge and clinical assessment into individualised fitness-to-dive assessment. His work addresses a central question in diving medicine: how should psychiatric symptoms, diagnoses and classifications be interpreted when assessing whether an individual can dive safely.

Dr Thijs Wingelaar

LtCdr Thijs Wingelaar MD PhD is a diving medicine physician and occupational medicine specialist from the Royal Netherlands Navy who also works with the Defence Diving Group, Netherlands Maritime Special Forces and the submarine service. Over the last decade he has conducted numerous studies focusing on human performance in extreme environments. Together with psychiatrist and psychotherapist Bram Querido he has published a series of papers on mental health in divers and fitness-to-dive assessments. 

Alongside his clinical and research roles, Dr Wingelaar is actively involved in diving medicine education and is actively engaged with the Dutch Society for Diving Medicine (NVD). His work combines operational naval medicine with clinical practice and research, with a particular interest in translating physiological evidence into safer and more effective diving practice.