Imagine sunning on a beach in Cozumel, sailing in Grand Cayman or scuba diving along an exotic reef and all the while earning academic credits. It’s not a slacker’s dream, but rather, a decades-old program called Temple Underwater Medicine that takes doctors out of rounds and brings them under the sea.

“I was trained in the U.S. Navy as an undersea and submarine medical officer,” says Alfred Bove, M.D., Ph.D., emeritus professor of medicine at Temple University School of Medicine. “When I came back to Philadelphia in the '70s, I was interested in that area of medicine.”

So was retired kinesiology professor Robert Leahy, Ph.D., who had developed a scuba diving course within the physical education program at Temple. Every year, undergraduate students spent a week during winter break scuba diving in warm waters earning physical education credits. Soon, word spread and it wasn’t only students interested in this aquatic classroom, but physicians as well.

“The doctors asked me if we could have a Continuing Medical Education course on diving and underwater medicine,” says Bove. “We started in 1974 and have been diving and learning ever since.”

Thirty-five years later, still buoyed by numerous requests to participate, Bove’s Temple Underwater Medicine continues to flourish like the teeming aquatic life program participants view up close every January. Physicians attending the six-day course — which comprises daily four-hour lectures and one or two evening seminars — earn 25 Continuing Medical Education credits. And though they are away from the world of Blackberries and patients, they are learning about a growing area: underwater medicine.

“We know about decompression sickness known as the 'bends,' but too much air in the lungs causes other problems. There are marine injuries and creatures that can irritate your skin, poison or bite you,” says Bove. “We also invite renowned speakers to teach about hyperbaric oxygen therapy which is used to treat wounds or counter carbon monoxide poisoning.”

Nelson M. Wolf, M.D., professor of medicine at Temple and director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at Temple University Hospital, is one such speaker. Like Bove, Wolf has been an avid diver since his days as a submarine and diving medical officer in the U.S. Navy. Since 2006, he has taken part in the Temple Underwater Medicine program, teaching about nuclear, biological and chemical warfare from the medical perspective. The topics raise awareness about the threat these weapons pose on land, but Wolf also discusses the program basics, like diving hazards and cardiovascular fitness.


“The symptoms of some diving conditions can be similar to other medical conditions, but treating diving related disorders is different and frequently may cure the problem if we diagnose it early on,” says Wolf.

Given there are 4 million sport divers in the country who could show up in any physician’s office, it helps to learn about ailments a doctor might not have encountered in a textbook or during residency. Bove adds doctors should also be aware of how to assess a person’s fitness for scuba diving. That is one of the many lessons doctors learn while attending Temple Underwater Medicine, but there’s plenty of time for diving, tanning or catching up.

“Around the medical school they call it 'camp' because it’s like meeting your old friends,” says Bove. “In fact, 60 percent of the participants are returning people, so it’s kind of a reunion — plus a very unique education experience.”