The 3rd Annual International Adaptive Scuba Diving symposium (IASDS) will be held on Feb. 17 from 1-4 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Chicago in conjunction with the Our World Underwater Show.  The event will be sponsored by Dive Heart, a Chicago, IL based not-for-profit that focuses on scuba diving as a therapy, and Midwest Dive News.

This year’s symposium will focus on the power of scuba as a therapy and what scuba can do to help in the field of medicine. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Richard A. Roller of Duke University. He is a Fellow at the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Roller’s focus is on dive medicine.

The president and founder of Diveheart, Jim Elliott, is excited about this years’ program. “We are pleased that Dr. Richard Rollor will be joining us this year to speak about the possibilities of the program,” Elliott says. “Dr. Rollor is working with folks who have PSTD through the program and it is helping. Scuba diving creates a zero gravity environment that makes it possible for those suffering injury to regain some sense of independence. This kind of therapy works and it will revolutionize rehabilitation. It is not often that you get to be a part of something that could change the world and this, using scuba diving as a therapy will.”

Additional speakers at this year’s event include Sara Klass, Director of Spinal Cord Injury Service at Shriners Hospital for Children who will address how scuba diving therapy can also help kids.

Elliot will give an overview of the Adaptive Scuba Diving Community and Developing the Roadmap to Research. There will be a question and answer portion at the end of the presentations. For more info visit www.diveheart.org or sign up here!