The diver medical questionnaire: a guide for dive centres

Training agencies ask divers to complete a medical questionnaire before a course. The form in use today is the Diver Medical Participant Questionnaire, part of the Recreational Diving Medical Screening System. Its text says it also suits anyone considering any diving activity, so you can use it for certified divers too.

What the questionnaire is

The questionnaire was developed by the Diver Medical Screen Committee, an international group of diving medicine specialists, with the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS), DAN America, DAN Europe and the Hyperbaric Medicine Division of the University of California, San Diego. The World Recreational Scuba Training Council (WRSTC) endorsed it on 9 June 2020. It has three parts:

• The participant questionnaire, signed by the diver, or by a parent or guardian for a minor.
• The physician's evaluation form, completed by a doctor when the questionnaire requires it. The current English version calls it the Medical Examiner's Evaluation Form.
• The Diving Medical Guidance, a reference for physicians.

At the time of writing, UHMS lists the current version as dated 1 January 2026. The version date is printed at the foot of each page, so check it on the forms you send out.

How the questions work

Page one has ten yes or no questions. A “no” to all ten means no evaluation is needed: the diver signs and dates the participant statement and the form is complete. A “yes” works in one of two ways:

• Questions 3, 5 and 10 have no follow-up. A “yes” to any of them means a physician's evaluation is required.
• The other seven questions each lead to a lettered box, A to G, on page two, which lists specific conditions. Only a “yes” inside the box means an evaluation is required.

The boxes let a diver declare old history without being sent to a doctor for it. A diver who had sinus surgery ten years ago answers “yes” to question 4, then “no” to every item in Box C, which asks about recent sinus, ear, eye and dental problems. No evaluation is needed.

When a physician's evaluation is needed

The diver takes all three pages to a physician, who marks the result as approved or not approved, then signs and dates it. When the form comes back, check that:

• It is signed by a certified medical doctor or other legally certified medical provider, with their details filled in.
• The result is marked as approved.
• No conditions have been added. The form warns that additional commentary could invalidate it for some agencies or organisations, so query an approval that carries a written limit, such as a maximum depth.

Evaluations take time to arrange, more so for a diver who is already on holiday. That is the main reason to collect questionnaires well before arrival.

How long a completed form is accepted

The questionnaire has no expiry date. How long a signed questionnaire or a physician's approval is accepted is set by training agency standards, and in some countries by local rules. Check your training agency's current standards and write the period into your procedures. Whatever the period, a change in health, such as new medication or recent surgery, calls for a new questionnaire.

For regular guests, DAN's Guidelines for Lifelong Medical Fitness to Dive recommend that all divers complete a medical questionnaire every year, with periodic fitness-to-dive evaluations for divers over 45 or with health risk factors. These are recommendations to divers, not agency rules.

Collect it before arrival

The worst time to find a “yes” that needs an evaluation is at the counter on the morning of the dive, when the diver cannot see a physician and the boat leaves without them. Collect the form in advance instead:

1. 1Send the questionnaire with the booking confirmation, together with the liability release.
2. 2Ask for it back by a set date, for example a week before arrival, and send a reminder if it has not arrived.
3. 3Review each form as it arrives. If an evaluation is required, tell the diver straight away.
4. 4Record the result against the booking: complete, evaluation required, or evaluation approved.
5. 5Tell the diver what happens if an evaluation is not ready in time, in line with your cancellation terms.

Storing completed forms

A completed questionnaire is health information. Under the EU and UK GDPR, data concerning health is special category data: processing it needs a lawful basis and a separate condition under Article 9, such as the diver's explicit consent. Many other countries have comparable rules. In practice:

• Limit access to the staff who need it, such as whoever reviews forms and the diver's instructor.
• Keep paper forms locked away, and digital forms in a system with individual staff logins, not a shared inbox or group chat.
• Decide how long you keep forms, based on your agency's record-keeping requirements, your insurer and local law, then destroy them on that schedule.

On the day

• At check-in, confirm that every diver on the day's trips has a complete questionnaire and, where one was required, an approved evaluation.
• Ask whether anything has changed since the form was signed. If it has, ask for a new questionnaire.
• Follow the form's own advice: a diver who feels ill should not dive, and neither should one who is pregnant or trying to become pregnant.
• If a diver cannot be cleared, tell them privately, apply your cancellation terms and make no exception for a single dive.