Edward D. Thalmann

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Edward Deforest Thalmann
April 3, 1945(1945-04-03)-July 24, 2004 (aged 59)
Place of birth Jersey City, New Jersey
Place of death Durham, North Carolina
Allegiance Flag of the United States United States of America
Service/branch United States Navy
Years of service 1971 - 1993
Rank Captain
Awards Legion of Merit
...(more)...
Other work Naval Medical Research Institute
Duke University
Divers Alert Network

Capt. Edward Deforest Thalmann, M.D., USN (ret.) (b. 3 April 1945-d. 24 July 2004; age 59) was an American hyperbaric medicine specialist who was principally responsible for developing the current United States Navy dive tables for mixed-gas diving, which are based on his eponymous Thalmann Algorithm (VVAL18).[1] At the time of his death, Thalmann was serving as Assistant Medical Director of the Divers Alert Network (DAN) and an Assistant Clinical Professor in Anesthesiology at Duke University’s Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology.[2]

Contents

[edit] Education

Thalmann graduated from Sayreville High School, Sayreville NJ in 1962. He attended the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1966 with a bachelor of science degree.[3] He attended medical school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. From 1970-1971, Dr. Thalmann was a surgical intern at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Quebec. It was there that he met his future wife, a nursing student.

While on active duty, from 1975-1977, Dr. Thalmann conducted a two-year postdoctoral fellowship under the guidance of Claes Lundgren and Hermann Rahn, at the State University of New York at Buffalo, studying the effects of immersion and breathing bag placement in rebreathers on underwater exercise.[4]

[edit] Naval career

Dr. Thalmann served as Chief Medical Officer on board the ballistic missile submarine USS Thomas Jefferson for a single deployment, from 1971-1972 before being posted as a research diving medical officer at the Naval Experimental Diving Unit (NEDU) at the Washington Navy Yard, where he was stationed until 1975.

Following his post-doctoral fellowship in Buffalo, in 1977, Dr. Thalmann returned to NEDU, now located in Panama City, Florida, as Assistant Senior Medical Officer, where he began developing new dive tables and mixed-gas diving techniques.[5][6] While at NEDU, Thalmann created a number of unique and innovative underwater exercise devices, still in use today, intended to assist in gauging the underwater endurance of divers using various gas mixtures while performing physically-demanding tasks.[7]

In 1985, Dr. Thalmann, now the Senior Medical Officer at NEDU, was selected for the NATO Undersea Medicine Personnel Exchange Program and assigned to the Royal Navy Institute of Naval Medicine, Alverstoke, United Kingdom. There he continued development of a new decompression table and worked on improving undersea thermal protection garments. Upon the conclusion of his exchange tour in 1987, Thalmann returned to Bethesda to serve as the commander of the Naval Medical Research Institute's diving medicine and physiology research division.

[edit] Civilian career

Following his retirement from the Navy in 1993, Thalmann stayed on at NMRI as a senior scientist in decompression research.[8] In July of 1994 took a position in Durham, North Carolina at Duke's Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology and later accepted a simultaneous position as the Assistant Medical Director of DAN in 1995.

Dr. Thalmann died due to congestive heart failure at the age of 59 and was buried at sea, with services conducted aboard an embarked Los Angeles-class submarine.

[edit] Contributions to hyperbaric medicine

Dr. Thalmann's initial studies were aimed at developing a mathematical algorithm that reflected, as closely as possible, the science of gas exchange in human tissues and which could replace early 20th century Haldanean procedures that had been modified in the mid-20th century based largely on trial and error.

Using the concepts of maximum likelihood as a theoretical foundation, Dr. Thalmann supervised hundreds of experimental dives to develop and verify a new set of decompression tables to protect divers. These tables were approved for use by the United States Navy and provide for much greater flexibility in depth and duration for safe diving and allow for the use of breathing gases other than air. This increased the operational capabilities of U.S. military divers, and the Thalmann Algorithm is being used by the United States Navy to develop diver-carried computers to calculate safe individual time limits for complex dive of varying depth.

In addition, Dr. Thalmann’s theoretical work is being used to revise the standard United States Navy Decompression Tables employed for less complex dives using compressed air. This will eventually benefit future military divers as well as the thousands of civilian recreational divers, worldwide. Dr. Thalmann was also part of the team that developed the protocols used to protect U.S. astronauts from decompression sickness when they leave the 1 atmosphere environment of the International Space Station for the lower atmospheric pressure in their space suits. [8]

[edit] Awards

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Refereed Journals

  • Raymond, L. W.; J. H. Crothers; G. Lindgren; E. D. Thalmann; W. H. Spaur; W. R. Braithwaite; H. C. Langworthy; T. E. Berghage (1973). "Indirect calorimetry in man in helium-oxygen at 50 atmospheres pressure.". Clin. Res. 21 (4): 848. 
  • Van Liew, H. D.; E. D. Thalmann; D. K. Sponholtz (1981). "Diffusive gas mixing in the lung in hyperbaric environments.". Prog. Resp. Res. 16: 110–114. 
  • Clayton, C. E.; M. S. Carraway; H. B. Suliman; E. D. Thalmann; K. N. Thalmann; D. E. Schmechel; C. A. Piantadosi (2001). "Inhaled carbon monoxide and hyperoxic lung injury in rats.". Am J Physiol Cell Mol Physiol. 281 (4): L949–57. PMID 11557599. 
  • Piantadosi, C. A.; E. D. Thalmann (2004 pmid=15085881). "Pathology: whales, sonar and decompression sickness.". Nature. 428 (6984): 1 p following 716; discussion 2 p following 716.. 
  • Demchenko, I. T.; Y. I. Luchakov; A. N. Moskvin; D. R. Gutsaeva; B. W. Allen; E. D. Thalmann; C. A. Piantadosi (2005). "Cerebral blood flow and brain oxygenation in rats breathing oxygen under pressure.". J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 25 (10): 1288–300. doi:10.1038/sj.jcbfm.9600110. PMID 15789033. 

[edit] Non-Refereed Journals and Reports

  • Thalmann, E. D. (1985). "Repetitive/Multi-Level Dive Procedures for Constant 0.7 ATA Oxygen Partial Pressure in Nitrogen Diving.". Navy Exp. Diving Unit Res. Report 9-85. 
  • Thalmann, E. D.; R. Schedlich, J.R. Broome and P.E. Barker. (1987). "Evaluation of Passive Thermal Protection Systems for Cold Water Diving.". (Royal Navy) Institute of Naval Medicine Report. Alverstoke, England 25-87. 
  • Albin, G.; P. Massell and E. D. Thalmann. (1990). "Basic Operation and Preliminary Trials of a Detector for Stationary Gas Bubbles.". Naval Medical Research Institute Report 91-39. 
  • Thorp, J. W.; D.M. Stevens, A.J. Dutka, T.J. Doubt and E.D. Thalmann. (1992). "Pyridostigmine Prophylaxis During Warm Water Diving Operations.". Navy Medicine 83 (1): 23–26. 
  • Survanshi SS, Weathersby PK, Homer LD, Thalmann ED. Design of Dive Trials. In: Lang MA, Vann RD eds: AAUS Repetitive Dive Workshop. Costa Mesa, CA. American Academy of Underwater Scientists, 1992:287-292.
  • Ball, R.; J. Himm, L. D. Homer, and E. D. Thalmann. (1994). "A Model of Bubble Evolution During Decompression Based on a Monte Carlo Simulation of Inert Gas Diffusion.". Naval Medical Research Institute Report 94-36. 
  • Survanshi, S. S.; E. C. Parker, E. D. Thalmann, and P. K. Weathersby. (1997). "Statistically based decompression tables XII: Volume I. Repetitive decompression tables for air and constant 0.7 ata PO2 in N2 using a probabilistic model.". Naval Medical Research Institute Report 97-36. 
  • Survanshi, S. S.; E. C. Parker, E. D. Thalmann, and P. K. Weathersby. (1997). "Statistically based decompression tables XII: Volume II. Repetitive dive tables: Air.". Naval Medical Research Institute Report 97-36. 
  • Survanshi, S. S.; E. C. Parker, E. D. Thalmann, and P. K. Weathersby. (1997). "Statistically based decompression tables XII: Volume III. Exceptional exposure tables: Air.". Naval Medical Research Institute Report 97-36. 
  • Survanshi, S. S.; E. C. Parker, E. D. Thalmann, and P. K. Weathersby. (1997). "Statistically based decompression tables XII: Volume IV. Repetitive dive tables: 0.7 ATA PO2 in N2.". Naval Medical Research Institute Report 97-36. 
  • Survanshi, S. S.; E. C. Parker, E. D. Thalmann, and P. K. Weathersby. (1997). "Statistically based decompression tables XII: Volume V. Exceptional exposure tables: 0.7 ATA PO2 in N2.". Naval Medical Research Institute Report 97-36. 
  • Gerth, W. A.; E. D. Thalmann. (1998). "Vascular Effects of Underwater Low Frequency Sound in Immersed Individuals.". Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory Report. 

[edit] Book Chapters

  • Vann, R.D; E.D. Thalmann (1993). "Decompression Modeling and Physiology", in Bennett, P.B. and Elliott, D.H. eds.: The Physiology and Medicine of Diving and Compressed Air Work, Fourth Edition, London: Bailliere Tindall. OCLC 2000230. 
  • Invited Reviewer for: "Treatment of decompression sickness", Chapter 13. In: Edmonds, C.; Lowry, C., and Pennefather, J. (1992). Diving and Subaquatic Medicine, Third Edition, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. OCLC 24009565. 
  • Thalmann, E.D. (1996). "Gas Physiology in Diving: Decompression", in Fregley, M.J. and C.M. Batteis, eds.: Handbook of Physiology, Section 4: Environmental Physiology Volume II. New York: The American Physiological Society. Oxford University Press., pp. 1012-1015. 
  • Thalmann, E.D. (1997). "Diving Hazards", in Langley, R.L, McLymore, R.L., Meggs, W.J. and Roberson, G.T. eds.: Safety and Health in Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries. Rockville, MD: Government Institutes. OCLC 35750471. 

[edit] References

  1. ^ Southerland, D.G.; Butler, F.K. (2001). The U.S. Navy Dive Computer (PDF).
  2. ^ Hard Hat History: Obituaries (PDF). Faceplate. U.S. Navy (February, 2005).
  3. ^ In Memoriam. Rensselaer Magazine. Rensselaer Alumni Association (Winter 2004).
  4. ^ Ed Thalmann, M.D., Assistant Medical Director at DAN, Dies. Divers Alert Network (2004-07-26).
  5. ^ Butler, Frank K.. The U.S. Navy Decompression Computer. Cochran Undersea Technology.
  6. ^ Ed Thalmann, M.D., Assistant Medical Director of Divers Alert Network for nine years, died July 24 in his Durham, North Carolina, home at the age of 59 (PDF). Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine. European Underwater and Baromedical Society (September 2004).
  7. ^ Anecdotal information provided by Dr. Thalmann's daughters.
  8. ^ a b Pianadosi, Claude (Fall 2004). In Memoriam: Edward Deforest Thalmann, 1945-2004 (PDF). Duke Anesthesiology Alumnus. Duke University Department of Anesthesiology.
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