Abstract
Emergency medicine (EM) is a rapidly growing specialty in Asia. However, the pace of development is different due to the diversity of socio-economic, cultural and medical systems in different Asian countries.1 –4 There is a real need to establish a platform, not only to share our knowledge in EM but more importantly to accumulate the power to support our partners in Asia to develop EM. This has to be done according to the individual needs in terms of medical education, postgraduate and specialist training as well as the pre-hospital emergency medical services system in our member countries and regions. In this regard, Asian Society for Emergency Medicine (ASEM) was established in 1998 after the first Asian Conference on Emergency Medicine (ACEM) held in Singapore. The founding members included the Hong Kong Society for Emergency Medicine and Surgery (HKSEMS), Japan Association for Acute Medicine (JAAM), Malaysian Society for Traumatology and Emergency Medicine (MASTEM), Society for Emergency Medicine in Singapore (SEMS) and Taiwan Society of Emergency Medicine (TSEM).
ASEM has now 13 member societies from Eastern, Southern and Western parts of Asia. We are also expecting more national bodies to represent their specialties to join in the near future. In addition, ASEM is going to celebrate our Silver Jubilee anniversary in 2 years’ time. We will show the world how EM advanced in the past 25 years. Our biannual flagship programme of ACEM has served as a platform for emergency physicians to meet and share the update of practice in EM in their perspectives. Despite the threat of COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong,5,6 we were determined to establish a new standard for ACEM. The first virtual ACEM was held successfully from 17 to 19 December 2021 in Hong Kong, which has proved the high standard of adaptability and perseverance of Asian emergency physicians.
The scope of EM extends beyond the management of the acutely ill or injured patients in the emergency department and includes both the pre-hospital field (related to all first aid or emergency medical services) 7 and the extended care after initial management. Due to the difference in the cultural, socio-economic and medical system, the practice of EM may not be the same among all Asian countries. However, the necessity to recognise EM as a unique medical specialty cannot be overstated. ASEM has the vision to facilitate the development of EM (including pre-hospital medicine) in those areas where EM is not completely established or recognised. A longer-term goal of ASEM is to develop a cross-national mutually recognised board certification for emergency physicians in Asia.
In order to foster the development of EM in Asia, we need to start from undergraduate medical education. The element of EM in the traditional undergraduate medical training has been underemphasized. ASEM is collaborating with the International Emergency Medicine Education Project (iEM) to provide free EM educational resources to medical students and EM residents worldwide. 8 The important resource from this collaboration is being promulgated using the ASEM network to benefit all those working for EM in Asia, not restricting to our member societies. Furthermore, ASEM also pledges to stand for the importance of the inclusion of EM in the undergraduate medicine curriculum. A position statement titled ‘Development of an Undergraduate Training Programme in Emergency Medicine’ was issued in February 2020, 9 and we are prepared to walk further.
The contribution of our Asian emergency physicians to global EM community is continuously rising. Apart from being an ex-officio member in the International Federation of Emergency Medicine (IFEM), ASEM is actively participating in organising webinars with IFEM to enrich emergency physicians all over the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. ASEM strongly believes that knowledge should be without borders. We will arrange more virtual educational activities in the future in order to reach more widely in the world of EM. Besides IFEM, ASEM will continue our connection with our European counterpart, European Society for Emergency Medicine (EuSEM). The collaborations between the EM giants in the two continents will benefit our fellows and assist us to walk a big step in the development of EM.
After all, Rome cannot be built in one day, and ASEM is no exception. Our ultimate target may not be achieved within a short period of time. However, if we all possess this dream and act together, we will definitely be able to conquer all the hurdles and reach our destiny in the future.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
