EUSEM celebrates its ‘coming of age’
Much has been achieved in European emergency medicine (EM) over the past 30 years since EUSEM was founded in 1994 at a meeting of the International Federation for Emergency Medicine in London.
Before the Society was launched there was no specialty in EM in Europe, let alone a core curriculum in the subject. Now, the Society has grown from a small, multidisciplinary group of individual experts into an organisation that has 38 national European societies, over 1200 individual members and represents over 40,000 EM specialists in Europe.
President of EUSEM, Jim Connolly, a consultant in EM at Great North Trauma and Emergency Care, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, says: “Thirty is a real ‘coming of age’ moment for EUSEM and something we need to celebrate throughout the congress.
“When EUSEM was founded, the existence of EM as a primary specialty across Europe was seen as key to making emergency care the best it could be. This aim is now tangibly close and EUSEM needs to look at the next phase of EM development, including improved harmonisation and advocacy for the specialty and those who work in it.”
Emeritus Professor of Emergency Medicine, Dr Herman Delooz, of KU Leuven, Belgium, was instrumental in setting up EUSEM and became its first president. He says: “Both EUSEM and the European Journal of Emergency Medicine, which started in 1993 and was adopted as its journal by EUSEM at its foundation, have done very well. The specialty of emergency medicine is established in many European countries and the journal has achieved an international reputation.
“At the first European Congress on Emergency Medicine in San Marino, Italy, in 1998, we discussed and finalised a ‘Manifesto for Emergency Medicine in Europe’, which was published in the European Journal of Emergency Medicine that year. This Manifesto was translated in several European languages and was the European ‘coming of age’ of the Society. Following the publication, we were invited to lecture all over Europe by the national societies that represented emergency doctors.”
A significant milestone came in 2011 when, after lobbying from EUSEM, the UEMS (Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes), a non-governmental organisation representing national associations of medical specialists in Europe, recognised EM as a specialty.
EUSEM prepared a curriculum for the specialty and the latest version was published in 2019, in association with the UEMS Multidisciplinary joint Committee on Emergency Medicine. So far, 17 European national societies have implemented the curriculum in their countries.
Prof. Delooz says there is still more work to be done. “More research is needed to establish EM as an academic discipline.”
Mr Connolly says: “EUSEM is entering an exciting stage in its ‘coming of age’. Keys to the next stages of growth are developing a strong governance framework and a long-term strategy that engages all of the membership.
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