Since the 90's, in the Telemedicine Department of the Institute of Clinical Physiology of the Italian National Research Council (IFC-CNR) a significant part of the activities in the field of Biotelemetry, Medical Electronics and Mathematical Models has been focused on the physiology and the clinical aspects related to endurance sports, such as F1 championships, Marathons, and Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine. These activities triggered the implementation first of an interdisciplinary research group on Diving Medicine and later of an inter-institutional research group on Extreme Physiology: the "Ai Confini della Fisiologia" Team [ACFT], literally "At the Frontiers of Physiology".
In this line of research, a high level educational engagement was established in 2005: the Second level University Master in Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (SSSA), for postgraduate medical doctors, gathering the heritage of the "Scuola di Specialita in Medicina del Nuoto e dell'Attivita Subacquea" (specialization school on swimming and underwater medicine) of the Chieti University, Italy, which activity was concluded in 2003. The Master of the SSSA operates in strict cooperation with IFC-CNR in Pisa and, currently, is the only high level academic school in the hyperbaric and underwater field in Europe, recognised by DMAC/EDTC (Diving Medical Advisory Committee / European Diving Technology Committee) for professional diving, namely the "commercial diving".
Research experiences have been performed on breath hold divers, scuba divers and Ultra-triathlon subjects, also during official competition, mainly concerning the brain-heart axis investigation and the pulmonary efficiency and the decompression illness (DCI).
A brief description of the developed devices, the main lines of research, and the related educational activity will be provided.