Divers Alert Network

Divers Alert Network began in 1980 as the National Diving Accident Network, set up at Duke University Medical Center with the task of running a 24-hour emergency hotline for injured divers; it later became a membership organisation and, in 1990, a 501(c)(3) non-profit ^[2]. It is based in Durham, North Carolina ^[1]. Its stated purpose is helping divers who need emergency medical assistance and promoting dive safety through research, education, products and services ^[3]. Its emergency hotline page says DAN medics are on call around the clock and that, in a life-threatening emergency, callers should first contact local emergency medical services and then call DAN ^[4]. Through its DAN World operation it lists service regions covering Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Canada ^[5]; DAN Europe, DAN Japan and DAN Southern Africa are separate regional organisations.

For cave diving, DAN matters mostly as a research body. It has kept a diving incident database since 1989 and invites anyone who has had or witnessed an incident or near-miss to report it, with published cases anonymised ^[6]. Its publication library holds annual reports analysing incidents and fatalities reported to DAN from 1988 onwards ^[7]. Researchers at DAN published analyses of American cave diving deaths covering 1969-2007 ^[8] and 1985-2015 ^[9], and the NSS Cave Diving Section asks divers to report cave incidents to DAN's research reporting system ^[10].