A History of Hyperbaric Medicine

3. Conclusion

On June 19^th, 1997 a first careful attempt was done to compare the European Committee indications with those of the HBO Committee of the UHMS. Not only indications were discussed but also recommended protocols, pressures and threshold treatment levels. The conclusion was that similarities were far greater than differences, and that in the future the two tables should be harmonized. Conditions not on both lists were to be evaluated to resolve differences as soon as possible. It was also planned to include the levels of recommendation for the ECHM indications as in the HBO Therapy UHMS Committee Report. A joint meeting took place during the Annual Meeting of the UHMS in Sydney in 2004; but a lot more work is required, involving both the UHMS Committee and the ECHM.

At the beginning of the 3^rd millennium, Hyperbaric Medicine appears to be a grown-up field of medicine world-wide with its own approved and accepted methods of evaluation of the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of therapy following EBM methods. For Hyperbaric Medicine to gain complete recognition as such, ethical and ecological considerations must be paramount in clinical practice, research and training. For this, imagination and creativity are more than ever a necessity.