Written by Dr Giles Cattermole, Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London
Edited by Florence Kinder
Fast approaching one year since the official launch of the European Society for Emergency Medicine’s (EUSEM) Global Emergency Medicine working-group, we look back at where it all began, with Dr Giles Cattermole.
It started in a pub in Newcastle… the Collingwood Arms, where I met with Dr Jim Connolly on Boxing Day, 2021. Jim was the new president-elect of the EEUSEM, and I’d just written a proposal for EUSEM to have a Global EM group.
Global EM hadn’t previously been much of a thing at EUSEM. The occasional session at EUSEM’s annual Congress, a perspective series in the European Journal (EJEM) in 2020. Maybe not unreasonably – lots of countries in EUSEM were still struggling to develop Emergency Medicine (EM) as a speciality themselves, and EUSEM has been hugely successful in bringing EM to pretty much the whole of Europe. However, it was increasingly clear that there were lots of EM doctors and nurses in Europe who wanted more involvement in Global EM. So, a couple of pints in, we decided we’d crack on with getting Global EM on the map in EUSEM. Initially, a webinar was organised for April 2022, and a workshop at the Berlin Congress in October. Following this, thanks to Professor Abdel Bellou, a former EUSEM president, a Global Health subgroup was then established in the new EUSEM working-group on quality and safety – the first group at EUSEM specifically to focus on Global EM. Subsequently, a formal proposal for a Global EM working-group was submitted in early 2023, approved in principle in December, and officially ratified and launched at the Copenhagen Congress in October 2024.
Nearly three years from the Collingwood to Copenhagen, but it was worth the wait! And nine months since we launched, we have 85 members from 40 countries (including 20 European countries). Possibly the largest of EUSEM’s groups; almost certainly with the widest membership.
So what are we for? What do we do?
We share a vision: to promote excellent, compassionate and equitable Global EM.
And to help us put that into practice, we’ve got three teams:
- Networking and Advocacy (led by Ffion Davies and Vitalii Stetsyk)
- Education and Training (Shweta Gidwani and Gabin Mbanjumucyo)
- Research and Quality (Arun Kumar)
Networking and Advocacy are all about collaboration, information and support. Promoting and advocating for Global EM issues within EUSEM. Developing our network of members within EUSEM, and networking with Global EM and other Global Health organisations worldwide.
Education and Training are developing webinars and workshops in Global EM, especially at the annual EUSEM Congress. Promoting and developing fellowships in Global EM across Europe and advocating for Global EM in European EM curricula and pushing the idea of bidirectional learning so that we all learn from each other, globally.
Research and Quality will propose scientific sessions at Congress, review the literature for the best in global EM, developing good practice guidelines and resources. And as we grow, hopefully look to obtain grants to conduct collaborative Global EM research.
It’s early days yet. But it’s been an encouraging year – not just the numbers of those who joined, but also the work we have achieved in a short space. We’ve had three perspective articles accepted in EJEM; we’ve got two conference sessions coming up and a pre-Congress workshop at the next EUSEM Congress in Vienna. – where we’ll also hold our annual meeting.
There is a lot to be getting involved with, and despite the really encouraging resolutions from the World Health Assembly to emphasise Emergency Care as part of universal health coverage, we know lots more that we could be doing. Global EM is all about confronting inequity in Emergency Care, and as we look around the world, there is a lot of injustice in healthcare – in Emergency Care especially
So if you’re a member of EUSEM, share our vision, and want to join in the work towards that goal of global equity in Emergency Care – do join us. And if you can, come to Vienna in September and join in!
EUSEM: https://eusem.org/
EWGEM webpage: https://eusem.org/sections-and-committees/working-groups/eusem-working-group-on-global-emergency-medicine-ewgem
EWGEM terms of reference and roadmap: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/4uf9t80clj2sc2fxscvld/AGTDX6_yY2Ops3u7gjVky-k?rlkey=7fpxgwa0fj6s63zst4h3gs1u2&st=5adxk0k1&dl=0
To join EWGEM: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeM_vaddpg2tSjYgm1byy8tq7roFrGk9AdF3OM4_IweyF2l0w/viewform
EUSEM Congress in Vienna, 28 September to 1 October: https://eusemcongress.org/
Global EM pre-course workshop in Vienna, Saturday afternoon, 27 September: https://eusemcongress.org/pre-courses/global-emergency-medicine/
EJEM perspectives on Global EM, 2020: https://journals.lww.com/euro-emergencymed/toc/2020/10000#-145048145
WHA resolution 76.2 (2023): https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA76/A76_R2-en.pdf
