About MedEdOnline

MedEdOnline went live on June 15, 2005. It was launched in conjunction with the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, in Las Vegas. MedEdOnline is a web-based educational venture jointly sponsored by South Carolina based National Baromedical Services (NBS) & The Baromedical Research Foundation (BRF).

NBS enjoys over two decades of hyperbaric management, administrative, contracting, and related consulting experience. Its principal has 40 years of experience in all phases of undersea diving and hyperbaric administration, education, medicine, research, and technology. NBS clients cross the continuum of the health care delivery system, and include health insurance organizations, diving education and safety associations. NBS served as a principal informational resource for a summary of the scientific literature supporting hyperbaric medicine for both the HHS Office of Inspector General Report on Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Technology Assessment Committee Report on Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. NBS afforded this support via its electronic hyperbaric library database. With over 6,000 articles representing every significant basic science and clinical hyperbaric publication over the past two centuries, the NBS literature database is the world’s largest such resource. It forms the backbone of the NBS educational and marketing initiatives.

NBS enjoys a reputation as the leading international provider of hyperbaric medicine training. Some 500 physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals, undergo Primary and Advanced training at our headquarters facility each year (University of South Carolina School of Medicine/Palmetto Health Richland Hospital).

NBS has a long-standing reputation as an organization of high ethical standards, and committed patient advocacy. NBS is equally committed to the appropriate application of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Our operating model is emulated by a majority of the hyperbaric programs that practice within North America. All of the NBS hyperbaric centers become accredited by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, and quickly evolve into regional centers of medical excellence. NBS intends to extend this accreditation process to its international centers immediately upon its availability. NBS has pioneered an evidence-based approach to hyperbaric medicine and related wound healing. These therapeutic algorithms represent best practice standards for many hyperbaric centers, and are sought for selected case reviews by managed care and commercial health insurers, and Medicare fiscal intermediaries.

The NBS comprehensive wound healing program represents a model of clinical efficacy and economic effectiveness. Multidisciplinary surgical specialists are complimented by experienced physicians who screen, treat, and direct patient- focused and algorithmically-based management plans. The program is regularly solicited, and routinely engaged, as a participant in domestic and international clinical trials of emerging technologies and wound treatment products. Key sponsoring organizations include Johnson and Johnson, Immunex, Ortho-McNeil, Human Genome Sciences, and KCI. The very high percentage of physician-referred vs. self-referred patients is testimony to the confidence of the regional medical community in the ability of the program to effectively diagnose and manage complex wound healing deficiencies.

NBS serves as the clinical practice review organization and fiscal intermediary for the Divers Alert Network’s accident insurance program. To this end, NBS has developed, introduced, and manages, the Diving Preferred Provider Network. This US-based organization represents over 40 hospital hyperbaric providers and some 200 practicing hyperbaric medicine physicians.

NBS founded, and supports, The Baromedical Research Foundation. This tax-exempt non-profit organization has, via its basic science laboratory at the USC School of Medicine Department of Surgery, studied several key aspects of hyperbaric safety. It has further served to elucidate hyperbaric medicine’s multifactorial mechanistic basis. In 1999, the Foundation developed and introduced a controlled, randomized and blinded, clinical trial of hyperbaric oxygen in the treatment of late radiation tissue injury. This multi-center and internationally enrolled project, presently involving six countries, is the largest such undertaking in the hyperbaric medicine field.

NBS is privately owned by its president and founder. There are no venture capitalist, stock market driven, or other financial investment driven interests. Such interests tend to run counter to our guiding principles of high ethical standards, patient advocacy, cost-containment, and an evidence-based application of this unique medical technology. The NBS team are experienced clinical and administrative specialists managing the business of health care, rather than investors in the business of medicine. NBS standards are high. There is no compromise in terms of staff quality, equipment provisions, and commitment to ongoing medical education and safety training.