Jules Eden

Last updated

Jules Eden
20-05-17 JULES EDEN.jpg
Born
Julian Christopher Paul Eden

1962 (age 6162)
Forres, Scotland
NationalityBritish
Alma mater Imperial College, London
Known forUK Pioneer Online Medicine
Scientific career
Fields Online Medicine

Julian (Jules) Christopher Paul Eden is an author, journalist, businessman and former doctor with specialisms in remote medicine and dive medicine. He was the founder of the UK's first online medical clinic, e-Med in 2000.

Contents

Early life

Born in 1962, Eden received his mid-term degree in Psychology, at Bedford College and matriculated in 1988 from the combined Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, (now part of Imperial College, London). He then worked in the UK National Health Service (NHS) and joined the North Devon vocational training scheme based at the North Devon District Hospital Barnstaple, before becoming a General Practitioner in Victoria, London. After working with London's homeless at The Passage refuge in Pimlico he created the “Homeless Medipac”, [1] a medical kit to help the homeless with basic medical problems in 1999.

Online medicine

Eden was responsible for creating the first online medical service in the UK, the e-med online medical clinic, in March 2000, offering diagnosis and prescriptions over the internet. [2] At the time, his practice was considered by the GMC to "represent serious and repeated departures from the most basic standards required of a competent medical practitioner" and that 'the panel's view based on the evidence given is that you're a businessman first and a clinician second". At his GMC hearing Eden was deemed to be "evasive, unreliable and at times untrustworthy" and he was removed from the GMC register in 2009. However, some aspects of the model he established are now used by NHS Direct (currently NHS Choices) the free health advice and information service provided by the National Health Service (NHS) for residents and visitors in the UK, with advice offered 24 hours a day via telephone and web contact (over 1.5 million patients visit the website every month. [3] ) and a new generation of online doctors in the UK including the Now Healthcare Group, Dr Fox Pharmacy, Push Doctor and Lloyds Pharmacy.

SCUBA and dive medicine

An avid SCUBA diver, in 2000 Eden created the “Medipac”, [4] a travel health kit now used by thousands of divers and travelers worldwide.

Eden also inaugurated and manages the Dive Lectures, a series of public lectures that have been hosted at the Royal Geographical Society in London every year since 2005 as part of an ongoing programme [5] of events by the Society to promote exploration and adventure sports. Featuring keynote presentations by well-known figures in diving, television, exploration, photography and environmentalism, the lectures have developed into a well-attended social and professional forum for the British scuba industry as well as a popular fund-raising occasion for diving-related charities.

Journalism and broadcasting

A writer and columnist for The Independent [6] on travel medical issues, he also wrote “the Flying Doctor” column for the Guardian [7] newspaper between 2002 and 2004. He wrote a medical column for Sport Diver Magazine [8] from 2000 to 2007.

At the beginning of 2000, Eden became the resident medical commentator on BBC Radio London (London Live 94.9). He then went on to present “Second Opinion with Dr Jules Eden” on LBC, London between 2001 and 2004. He also co-hosted the programme “Wanda and the Doc” for Whereitsat.tv from 2001 to 2003. [9]

In 2006, he co-authored 50 Reasons to Hate the French , a humorous look at the history of Anglo-French relations, which became a New York Times List best-seller. [10] Criticism by Le Figaro following its release prompted Eden to defend the book as a merely satirical work.

In 2012, he wrote FAQ Dive Medicine, a guide to the medical aspects of diving for both professional and amateur divers. [11]

Birdwatching

Eden is a keen birdwatcher. In 2021, he was listed as #125 in Surfbirds' World Rankings of prominent birders [12]

Related Research Articles

The National Association of Underwater Instructors is a nonprofit association of scuba instructors. It primarily serves as a recreational dive certification and membership organization established to provide international diver standards and education programs. The agency was founded in 1960 by Albert Tillman and Neal Hess. NAUI is headquartered in the Tampa, Florida area with dive and member instructors, resorts, stores, service and training centers located around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uniform Service Diver Insignia (United States)</span> Qualification badges of the uniformed services of the USA

The diver insignia are qualification badges of the uniformed services of the United States which are awarded to servicemen qualified as divers. Originally, the diver insignia was a cloth patch decoration worn by United States Navy divers in the upper-portion of the enlisted service uniform's left sleeve during the first part of World War II, when the rating insignia was worn on the right sleeve. When enlisted rating insignia were shifted to the left sleeve in late World War II, the patch shifted to the upper right sleeve. The diving patch was created during World War II, and became a breast insignia in the late 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diving medicine</span> Diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disorders caused by underwater diving

Diving medicine, also called undersea and hyperbaric medicine (UHB), is the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of conditions caused by humans entering the undersea environment. It includes the effects on the body of pressure on gases, the diagnosis and treatment of conditions caused by marine hazards and how relationships of a diver's fitness to dive affect a diver's safety. Diving medical practitioners are also expected to be competent in the examination of divers and potential divers to determine fitness to dive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scuba diving</span> Swimming underwater, breathing gas carried by the diver

Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface breathing gas supply, and therefore has a limited but variable endurance. The name scuba is an anacronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus" and was coined by Christian J. Lambertsen in a patent submitted in 1952. Scuba divers carry their own source of breathing gas, usually compressed air, affording them greater independence and movement than surface-supplied divers, and more time underwater than free divers. Although the use of compressed air is common, a gas blend with a higher oxygen content, known as enriched air or nitrox, has become popular due to the reduced nitrogen intake during long or repetitive dives. Also, breathing gas diluted with helium may be used to reduce the effects of nitrogen narcosis during deeper dives.

Diving disorders, or diving related medical conditions, are conditions associated with underwater diving, and include both conditions unique to underwater diving, and those that also occur during other activities. This second group further divides conditions caused by exposure to ambient pressures significantly different from surface atmospheric pressure, and a range of conditions caused by general environment and equipment associated with diving activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Underwater diving</span> Descending below the surface of the water to interact with the environment

Underwater diving, as a human activity, is the practice of descending below the water's surface to interact with the environment. It is also often referred to as diving, an ambiguous term with several possible meanings, depending on context. Immersion in water and exposure to high ambient pressure have physiological effects that limit the depths and duration possible in ambient pressure diving. Humans are not physiologically and anatomically well-adapted to the environmental conditions of diving, and various equipment has been developed to extend the depth and duration of human dives, and allow different types of work to be done.

Divers Alert Network (DAN) is a group of not-for-profit organizations dedicated to improving diving safety for all divers. It was founded in Durham, North Carolina, United States, in 1980 at Duke University providing 24/7 telephonic hot-line diving medical assistance. Since then the organization has expanded globally and now has independent regional organizations in North America, Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific and Southern Africa.

The World Recreational Scuba Training Council (WRSTC) was founded in 1999 and is dedicated to creating minimum recreational diving training standards for the various scuba diving certification agencies across the world. The WRSTC restricts its membership to national or regional councils. These councils consist of individual training organizations who collectively represent at least 50% of the annual diver certifications in the member council's country or region. A national council is referred to as a RSTC.

e-med is an online medical site based in the UK, staffed and owned by doctors. It is notable for being the first web portal to offer consultation, diagnosis, referral and prescription services to remote patients via email and Skype video conferencing, and for a controversial General Medical Council case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diver training</span> Processes to develop the skills and knowledge to dive safely underwater

Diver training is the set of processes through which a person learns the necessary and desirable skills to safely dive underwater within the scope of the diver training standard relevant to the specific training programme. Most diver training follows procedures and schedules laid down in the associated training standard, in a formal training programme, and includes relevant foundational knowledge of the underlying theory, including some basic physics, physiology and environmental information, practical skills training in the selection and safe use of the associated equipment in the specified underwater environment, and assessment of the required skills and knowledge deemed necessary by the certification agency to allow the newly certified diver to dive within the specified range of conditions at an acceptable level of risk. Recognition of prior learning is allowed in some training standards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diving instructor</span> Person who trains and assesses underwater divers

A diving instructor is a person who trains and usually also assesses competence of underwater divers. This includes freedivers, recreational divers including the subcategory technical divers, and professional divers which includes military, commercial, public safety and scientific divers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fitness to dive</span> Medical fitness of a person to function safely underwater under pressure

Fitness to dive, specifically the medical fitness to dive, is the medical and physical suitability of a diver to function safely in the underwater environment using underwater diving equipment and procedures. Depending on the circumstances, it may be established with a signed statement by the diver that they do not have any of the listed disqualifying conditions. The diver must be able to fulfill the ordinary physical requirements of diving as per the detailed medical examination by a physician registered as a medical examiner of divers following a procedural checklist. A legal document of fitness to dive issued by the medical examiner is also necessary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neal W. Pollock</span> Canadian researcher in diving physiology and hyperbaric medicine

Neal Pollock is a Canadian academic and diver. Born in Edmonton, Canada he completed a bachelor's degree in zoology; the first three years at University of Alberta and the final year at the University of British Columbia. After completing a master's degree he then served as diving officer at University of British Columbia for almost five years. He then moved to Florida and completed a doctorate in exercise physiology/environmental physiology at Florida State University.

Guy "Rusty" Garman, sometimes known as Doc Deep, was a physician and scuba diver who died during an attempt to set a world record recreational deep dive on 15 August 2015, aged 56.

Dive leader is the title of an internationally recognised recreational diving certification. The training standard describes the minimum requirements for dive leader training and certification for recreational scuba divers in international standard ISO 24801-3 and the equivalent European Standard EN 14153-3. Various organizations offer training that meets the requirements of the dive leader standard. Some agencies use the title "Dive Leader" for their equivalent certification, but several other titles are also used, "Divemaster" may be the most widespread, but "Dive Supervisor" is also used, and should not be confused with the very different status and responsibilities of a professional diving supervisor. CMAS affiliates certifications which meet the requirements of CMAS 3-star diver should meet the standard by default. The occupation of a dive leader is also known as "dive guide", and is a specialist application of a "tour guide".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of scuba diving</span> History of diving using self-contained underwater breathing apparatus

The history of scuba diving is closely linked with the history of the equipment. By the turn of the twentieth century, two basic architectures for underwater breathing apparatus had been pioneered; open-circuit surface supplied equipment where the diver's exhaled gas is vented directly into the water, and closed-circuit breathing apparatus where the diver's carbon dioxide is filtered from the exhaled breathing gas, which is then recirculated, and more gas added to replenish the oxygen content. Closed circuit equipment was more easily adapted to scuba in the absence of reliable, portable, and economical high pressure gas storage vessels. By the mid-twentieth century, high pressure cylinders were available and two systems for scuba had emerged: open-circuit scuba where the diver's exhaled breath is vented directly into the water, and closed-circuit scuba where the carbon dioxide is removed from the diver's exhaled breath which has oxygen added and is recirculated. Oxygen rebreathers are severely depth limited due to oxygen toxicity risk, which increases with depth, and the available systems for mixed gas rebreathers were fairly bulky and designed for use with diving helmets. The first commercially practical scuba rebreather was designed and built by the diving engineer Henry Fleuss in 1878, while working for Siebe Gorman in London. His self contained breathing apparatus consisted of a rubber mask connected to a breathing bag, with an estimated 50–60% oxygen supplied from a copper tank and carbon dioxide scrubbed by passing it through a bundle of rope yarn soaked in a solution of caustic potash. During the 1930s and all through World War II, the British, Italians and Germans developed and extensively used oxygen rebreathers to equip the first frogmen. In the U.S. Major Christian J. Lambertsen invented a free-swimming oxygen rebreather. In 1952 he patented a modification of his apparatus, this time named SCUBA, an acronym for "self-contained underwater breathing apparatus," which became the generic English word for autonomous breathing equipment for diving, and later for the activity using the equipment. After World War II, military frogmen continued to use rebreathers since they do not make bubbles which would give away the presence of the divers. The high percentage of oxygen used by these early rebreather systems limited the depth at which they could be used due to the risk of convulsions caused by acute oxygen toxicity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of underwater diving</span> Hierarchical outline list of articles related to underwater diving

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to underwater diving:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Index of underwater diving</span> Alphabetical listing of underwater diving related topics

The following index is provided as an overview of and topical guide to underwater diving:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scuba diving tourism</span> Industry based on recreational diver travel

Scuba diving tourism is the industry based on servicing the requirements of recreational divers at destinations other than where they live. It includes aspects of training, equipment sales, rental and service, guided experiences and environmental tourism.

References

  1. "First aid for the homeless". news.bbc.co.uk.
  2. "GP treats patients 'over the internet'". news.bbc.co.uk.
  3. History of NHS Direct Archived 16 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine NHS Direct, retrieved 14 January 2009
  4. "Travel Health Zone - e-med - medipac - travel medicine". www.travelhealthzone.com.
  5. Royal Geographical Society What's On
  6. "The obsessive traveller". The Independent. 27 November 2000.
  7. Eden, Dr Jules (27 July 2004). "Careful how you go" via www.theguardian.com.
  8. "Tahitian Fringe - Far Afield in a South Pacific Eden". Sport Diver.
  9. Jules Eden (17 May 2020). "Second Opinion with Jules Eden". Apple Podcasts (Podcast). Apple. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  10. Pelling, Rowan (1 October 2007). "One very good reason to love the French" via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  11. FAQ Dive Medicine By Dr. Oliver Firth and Dr. Jules Eden
  12. Surfbirds Life & Year List Rankings