Chapter Town Hall 2025: Mid-West: Clinical Hyperbaric Medicine

Dr. David Ajayi is Board Certified in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine, and Undersea & Hyperbaric Medicine. He is also a Diving Medical Physician (DMAC/EDTCmed Level 2) and Medical Examiner of Divers (DMAC/EDTCmed Level 1). Dr. David is the pioneering Medical Director of the Hyperbaric and Dive Medicine department at Essentia Health, Fargo ND, and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He is the Principal Investigator for the HOINPCS trial – a randomized control trial investigating the role of hyperbaric oxygen in persistent post-concussive syndrome that utilizes an objective concussive biomarker. He continues to do research in partnership with other collaborators at the University of North Dakota.

University of South Florida, Tampa,FL, 33606
Hyperbaric Medicine Oversight Officer

Emeritus Professor and Past Chair Department of Anesthesiology & Critical Care. He specializes in anesthesiology and has over 53 years of experience in the field of medicine. He is affiliated with numerous hospitals, including Tampa General Hospital. His research interests include Anesthesiology, Diving Medicine, Hyperbaric Medicine and Respiration Physiology. He currently serves on the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Committee for the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society. He is well published on Hyperbaric Medicine and frequently lectures on the Protective Strategies Against ischemia/reperfusion Injury. His research has explored respiratory and exercise human responses to high-pressure environments (The Atlantic series of Deep Dives – 77 ATA) and treatment of diving accidents (DAN).

Jay Clark Buckey, Jr. is an American physician and astronaut who flew aboard one Space Shuttle mission (STS-90) as a Payload Specialist. Buckey holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University (1977) and an M.D. from Cornell in 1981, interning at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and completing his residence at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.  He was also a flight surgeon with the U.S. Air Force Reserve for 8 years.  Currently, Dr. Buckey is a Professor of Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Directs the Hyperbaric Medicine program at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Dr. Feldmeier received his D.O. degree from The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1979 with USAF sponsorship and completed residency training in Radiation Oncology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas in 1985. He received a fellowship certificate from the USAF Hyperbaric Medicine Fellowship Training Program at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas and was a staff physician there from 1980 to 1982. Dr. Feldmeier was simultaneously the Chief of Radiation Oncology and Chairman of the Hyperbaric Medicine Department at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio before separating from the USAF in 1985. Dr. Feldmeier has served as the Chief of Radiation Oncology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Grace Hospital in Detroit, MI and the Chairman of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toledo Medical Center from which he retired in 2013 with the award of Professor Emeritus. Dr. Feldmeier has authored numerous publications in both radiation oncology and hyperbaric medicine. He has been the editor of the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Committee Report. He served as review editor of Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine. He is a Fellow of Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine and Past- President of the UHMS. He currently co-chairs the UHMS Research Committee. He is a Fellow of the American College of Radiation Oncology.   He is a medical consultant to International ATMO. He is the only physician in the U.S. board certified in both Radiation Oncology and Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine.

Dr. Kirby focuses his practice on trauma, acute care surgery, wound healing, necrotizing fasciitis,  multisystem organ dysfunction, organ failure, sepsis, and shock. Dr. Kirby is the Medical Director of the Wound Care Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

Kyle DuBose graduated from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in 2013. He completed his primary training in Family Medicine and Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Subsequently, he completed his fellowship training in Hyperbaric and Undersea Medicine at Kent Hospital in Warwick, RI. He has worked at Advocate Aurora Health since August 2017 as the lead physician at Aurora Medical Center Kenosha’s Comprehensive Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care Clinic. He chairs the Utilization Review Committee for the Hyperbaric Medicine Department at Advocate Aurora Health. He was involved in helping create the Hyperbaric and Undersea Medicine Fellowship at Advocate Aurora Health and is currently one of the faculty attendings for the program. In 2017, he helped create and leads the Limb Salvage Team at Aurora Medical Center Kenosha. Dr. DuBose also served on the Medical Executive Committee at Aurora Medical Center Kenosha.

Dr. Gesell is the System Director for Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care with Advocate Aurora Medical Group and Section Chair for Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine. She is board certified in Emergency Medicine and Undersea & Hyperbaric Medicine. Dr. Gesell is a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, as well as, the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society. Dr. Gesell is a Past President of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, Past Chair of the UHMS Board of Directors, and former Chair of the UHMS Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Committee. Dr. Gesell represents the medical specialty as the UHMS Delegate in the AMA House of Delegates and is the elected American Board of Preventive Medicine Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Sub-Board Chair.

Dr. Weaver received a BS in Engineering Science from Arizona State University followed by medical school from the University of Arizona. He served a rotating internship in the US Navy, then went through the medical officer’s course in Undersea and Submarine medicine and was an Undersea Medical Officer on the USS Canopis (AS-34) for two years. After discharged he served in the Naval Reserves with SEAL Team 1-3-5 for a few years.  After discharge from Active Duty he trained in Internal Medicine, with fellowship training in pulmonary and critical care at the University of Utah. After completion of fellowship he became the Medical Director of Hyperbaric Medicine and Co-director of the Shock Trauma Respiratory ICU at the Level One trauma center, LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City, Utah for 20 years. He was a co-investigator for the ARDSnet of the NIH and was the principle investigator of a randomized controlled trial of hyperbaric oxygen for acute carbon monoxide poisoning, published by the New England Journal of Medicine. He is a former president of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society. He has authored and co-authored hundreds of papers, abstracts and book chapters. For 10 years he had a senior leadership role in the DoD effort to conduct blinded randomized trials of hyperbaric oxygen for post-concussive syndrome due to War-related mild traumatic brain injury. Research activities include study of neural auto-antibodies following carbon monoxide poisoning and a randomized trial of hyperbaric oxygen for sequelae months to years after brain injury. He enjoys off-road UTV and adventure motorcycle riding, SCUBA diving, and spending time with his family.