Pre-hospital emergency medicine

Pre-hospital emergency medicine
A prehospital emergency medicine doctor in Scotland
SystemAcute illness and injury
Significant diseases
SpecialistPre-hospital emergency physician

Pre-hospital emergency medicine (abbreviated PHEM), also referred to as pre-hospital care, immediate care, or emergency medical services medicine (abbreviated EMS medicine), is a medical subspecialty which focuses on caring for seriously ill or injured patients before they reach hospital, and during emergency transfer to hospital or between hospitals. It may be practised by physicians from various backgrounds such as anaesthesiology, emergency medicine, intensive care medicine and acute medicine, after they have completed initial training in their base specialty.[1]

Doctors practising PHEM are usually well-integrated with local emergency medical services, and are dispatched together with emergency medical technicians or paramedics where potentially life-threatening trauma or illness is suspected that may benefit from immediate specialist medical treatment.[2] This may involve travelling by car[3] or air ambulance to the site.

  1. ^ Mackenzie R (2018). "Brief history of Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine". Emerg Med J. 35 (3): 146–148. doi:10.1136/emermed-2017-207310. PMID 29463631. S2CID 3408899.
  2. ^ Wilson MH, Habig K, Wright C, Hughes A, Davies G, Imray CH (2015). "Pre-hospital emergency medicine". Lancet. 386 (10012): 2526–34. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00985-X. PMID 26738719. S2CID 11298280.
  3. ^ Highland, N. H. S. (2023-03-23). "Prehospital immediate care and trauma". NHS Highland. Retrieved 2023-03-24.

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