Medical Seminars History

Medical Seminars Inc.

Since 1981 Medical Seminars has been providing physician CME programs in diving medicine.  Medical Seminars was created by Helen Turcotte Davis to provide physicians the knowledge to treat injured divers and act as diving safety consultants in their communities.  Her husband and partner Dr. Jefferson C. Davis served as Medical Director until he lost his bout with cancer in 1989.  Helen has continued to provide this important educational opportunity until December 2008 when she decided it was time to hang up her fins.

Because Helen would like to see Medical Seminars continue providing medicine of diving education to physicians, Dr. Paul J. Sheffield, who has served as CME program advisor and frequently as course director on many Medical Seminars programs since 1989, has agreed to carry on the tradition.  Suzanne Pack will be the Medical Seminars Program Coordinator and is responsible for organizing the destination and registration.

Dr. Paul Sheffield is President of International ATMO, Inc. which is a provider of wound care and hyperbaric medicine management, consulting, and education services that was founded in 1977 by Jefferson C. Davis MD; Richard D. Heimbach MD, PhD; Jared M. Dunn, MD; Paul J. Sheffield, PhD; and Camille J. Cutrona, BA.  In 2009, International ATMO, Inc began doing business as Medical Seminars, Inc, and relocated the home office to 414 Navarro, Suite 502, San Antonio, Texas 78205.  Suzanne Pack is the Manager of International ATMO's Education Department and has been organizing CME activities since 1993.

Helen Turcotte Davis

President of Medical Seminars, Inc of San Antonio, Texas from 1981 to 2008.

In January 2009, Ms. Helen Turcotte Davis hung up her fins after 30 years of educating physicians in the science and medicine of diving.  As a provider of physician continuing medical education (CME), Ms Davis made a major contribution to the education of the diving community and the public in the practice of Diving Medicine.

Helen hails from Youngstown, Ohio.  Her parents, Steve and Rose Antonoff, immigrated to the United States from Bulgaria and Poland and owned and operated a successful dairy farm where Helen was raised.  Helen graduated from nearby Boardman High School and went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Ohio State University. 

In the early 1970's, increasing popularity of recreational scuba diving resulted in escalating numbers of injured civilian divers.  Since diving medicine education was limited to military physicians, injured civilian divers could rarely find physicians who were aware of their special medical needs.  To satisfy the need for civilian physician education in the medicine of diving, in 1977, Helen conceived and created one of the first Medicine of Diving courses. In 1981, she created Medical Seminars, Inc, for the purpose of providing continuing medical education courses in diving medicine. To encourage physicians to attend the medicine of diving seminars, Ms Davis included vacation packages at exclusive diving resorts and chose an internationally known faculty, headed by Dr. Jefferson C. Davis. The Undersea Medical Society (later named UHMS) saw the wisdom of this educational opportunity and sponsored physician CME credit. Her Medicine of Diving CME Program was immediately successful, drawing participants from all medical specialties.  Participants learned to both treat injured divers and to serve as diving safety consultants in their local communities.  Participants also served as consultants for a Medical Seminars book that provided guidance for physicians in evaluating sport diver’s fitness to dive entitled, Medical Examination of Sport Scuba Divers. 

Medical Seminars, Inc was the first to obtain UMS CME sponsorship, which is now offered to other organizations with similar CME activities. The success of Ms Davis' Medical Seminars served as the genesis for several other CME programs in diving medicine.  It also set the stage for the Society to acquire U.S. Navy funding to assist in creating the Diver’s Accident Network, which became Divers Alert Network in affiliation with Duke University.  Despite the death of her husband/partner, Dr Jefferson C. Davis, in 1989, Ms Davis continued to provide this important educational opportunity for physicians interested in diving medicine.  Over the past 30 years, her diving education program has provided over 6,000 physicians with more than 125,000 AMA PRA Category 1 CME credits™ of UHMS-Sponsored Physician CME.

In 1983, the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences bestowed on Ms Davis the NOGI (acronym for New Orleans Grand Isle) Award, the most prestigious award in the diving industry given in the category of Sports/Education to outstanding athletes and teachers who make recreational diving a safe, enjoyable and accessible activity for all who love the ocean. In 2000, her contributions to diving safety were recognized and honored by the Women Divers’ Hall of Fame. In 2002, UHMS Gulf Coast Chapter recognized her work with the Special Service Award.  In 2003, the UHMS acknowledged the importance of her Diving Medicine Continuing Medical Education Program with the Charles W. Shilling Award. In 2006 she made a cameo appearance in the feature film "No Pain, No Gain" which her son Samuel Turcotte directed and for which her son Michael Turcotte served as the bodybuilding and sports-nutrition advisor.

Through her physician CME programs, Ms Davis has quietly and effectively made major contributions to diving medicine and diver safety.  Because of her pioneering efforts, and the efforts of others who have tailored their training programs after hers, an injured scuba diver can now receive effective treatment from a knowledgeable physician at most major cities and at most of the popular dive sites on the globe.  Her educational programs have made a major contribution to diving safety.  The entire diving medicine community and divers everywhere are the beneficiaries.

Jefferson C. Davis, MD

Medical Program Director of Medical Seminars, Inc of San Antonio, Texas from 1981 to 1989

Dr Jefferson C. Davis devoted his entire adult life serving the diving, aerospace and hyperbaric medicine communities.  Through his clinical practice, educational activities, and publications, he inspired several generations of clinicians to provide quality medical service for divers, aviators, and hyperbaric medicine & wound care patients.

Dr Davis was born December 7, 1932 and raised in Neosho, Missouri.  After receiving his MD at the University of Missouri in 1958, he joined the US Air Force Medical Corps to become a Flight Surgeon.  He received his MPH from the University of California at Berkeley and was Board Certified in Aerospace Medicine. He studied diving medicine at the US Navy Experimental Diving Unit in Washington DC. In 1965, Dr Davis and his colleagues created the first US Air Force course in Hyperbaric Medicine. He founded “LEOFAST,” the US Air Force predecessor of the Divers Alert Network. In 1974 he founded and became the first Director of the USAF Hyperbaric Medicine Center at Brooks Air Force Base Texas, which now bears his name. He created the Davis Protocol in the application of Hyperbaric Medicine for wound healing enhancement. He became Medical Director for Medical Seminars' Medicine of Diving Program in which physicians from all medical specialties could learn to treat injured divers and to serve as consults to their local diving communities.

In 1979, after 20 years of service Dr Davis retired from the US Air Force as a Chief Flight Surgeon in the grade of Colonel.  Dr Davis became founding member and President of International ATMO, Inc, the first known contract provider of wound care and hyperbaric medicine services.  He set up a successful practice at two San Antonio hospitals. 

Dr Davis was co-editor and author of Diving Medicine, the classic Bove and Davis textbook (1976, 1990). He was co-editor and author, with Dr TK Hunt, the first hyperbaric medicine textbook, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (1977).  It was followed in 1988 with Problem Wounds: Role of Oxygen, which is a seminal document in wound healing.  He was a highly sought-after lecturer and authored over 70 papers and book chapters, and produced 5 books.

In 1981, the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences bestowed on Dr Davis the NOGI (acronym for New Orleans Grand Isle) Award in the category of Sports/Education for his contributions in making recreational diving a safe, enjoyable and accessible activity for all who love the ocean. In 1986 he received a Citation of Merit from the University of Missouri Medical Alumni Organization. In 1990 the island of Bonaire dedicated a reef as the Jefferson C. Davis, MD Memorial Reef. In 2000, The Cayman Islands posthumously inducted him into the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame.  The UHMS Gulf Coast Chapter has named their most prestigious award the Jefferson C. Davis MD Memorial Award which is presented for clinical excellence and research in clinical hyperbaric medicine.

Dr Davis was Adjunct Professor of Environmental Medicine at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston. He was President of the Aerospace Medical Association, the American College of Preventive Medicine, and the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society. He was the National Consultant to the US Air Force Surgeon General in Hyperbaric Medicine. He was medical consultant to the space program, chairing the NASA committee that planned the hyperbaric treatment capability for the first US space station.  His compassion for his patient's well being was legendary and he contributed much to the diving, aerospace and hyperbaric medicine communities.  Of all his achievements, he was most proud of his marriage to Helen Turcotte Davis and for being "an old country doctor."  Dr Davis lost his bout with cancer in his 57^th year on July 30, 1989.