Scuba Medical Clearance, How to Get It Online

Your shop asked for medical clearance before the course starts, or a liveaboard wants a signed form before you board. Scuba medical clearance is a licensed physician’s written opinion that nothing in your health history is incompatible with recreational diving. This guide covers when you actually need it, which histories clear without an office visit, and how to get the signed form in hand without losing a week to appointments.

What scuba medical clearance actually is

The document your dive shop wants is the Diver Medical Physician’s Evaluation Form, part of the screening system built by the Diver Medical Screen Committee in association with the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, DAN in the US, DAN Europe, and the hyperbaric medicine division at UC San Diego. PADI, SSI, NAUI and most other training agencies all use it.

The result is binary. The physician either finds no conditions incompatible with recreational scuba diving or freediving, or does not, and signs under their own name, specialty and license. There is no conditional clearance and no maybe. People call the signed result a lot of things, a dive medical, a scuba medical certificate, medical clearance for scuba diving, but it is the same single page.

When you need it, and when you do not

Every student starts with the Diver Medical Participant Questionnaire, the yes or no screening sheet. Answer no to everything and the questionnaire itself is normally enough; no physician is required and you should not be paying anyone for clearance. Answer yes to anything and the shop cannot train you until a physician completes and signs the evaluation form.

There is one case that surprises people. Some operators, particularly liveaboards and overseas training centers, ask every diver for a physician-signed form regardless of how the questionnaire came out. If that is your situation, you need the signature even with a clean history. Read the exact wording your shop or boat sent before you book anything.

What clears online and what gets referred

A video visit cannot replace a hands-on examination for every history, and an honest service says which is which. These are the histories that frequently clear on records plus a live visit:

• Mild, well-controlled asthma with recent normal spirometry
• Controlled blood pressure on non-sedating medication
• Type 2 diabetes, well-controlled without insulin
• Resolved ear or sinus surgery, fully healed
• Remote orthopedic injuries with full function
• Divers over 45 with a normal cardiovascular history
• Well-managed thyroid, cholesterol and similar conditions

These go to in-person dive medicine instead, with a full refund:

• Coronary disease, arrhythmia or unexplained chest symptoms
• History of collapsed lung (pneumothorax)
• Seizure history
• Insulin-dependent diabetes
• Pregnancy, where clearance is deferred rather than declined

The physician’s judgment on your actual records decides every case. A yes answer is a routing decision, not a rejection.

How the online evaluation works

Flag your yes answers and send your records. A short intake covers what you flagged, and you upload whatever relates to it: recent spirometry if you flagged asthma, a medication list for blood pressure, an operative note for past surgery. Clear phone photos are fine.

Meet the physician on video. A scheduled visit of about 15 minutes with Dr. Adam Z. Kawalek, a board-certified internist who is also a PADI certified diver, licensed in 29 states. You book from the state you will physically be in during the visit, because that is where telehealth law places the visit.

Get the signed form the same day. When clearance is appropriate, the completed RSTC Physician’s Evaluation Form lands in your inbox signed under his own name, NPI and state license, carrying a verification code your dive shop can check.

What it costs and how long it lasts

DiveSlip charges $91 flat for the records review, the live video visit and the signed form. If the physician cannot safely clear you online and refers you to an in-person evaluation instead, you receive a 100% refund. Training agencies generally treat the clearance as current for 12 months, so divers with flagged history renew annually. Keep a copy with your certification card, because resorts and liveaboards often ask to see it again.

Getting cleared before a booked trip

Most divers who come to us are working against a date. The practical answer is that the whole process usually takes one to two days from booking, so a trip next week is comfortable and a course on Saturday is usually still possible. What slows people down is records: if you flagged asthma and your last spirometry was years ago, the physician may need something more recent, and chasing that from your doctor’s office takes longer than the evaluation itself. Start by gathering what relates to your yes answers.

If your own doctor already declined to sign, that is extremely common and not about your health; here is why it happens and what to do. If you are weighing whether an online evaluation is the real thing, we answer that directly in is an online dive medical legitimate.