As health care professionals working on Emergency medicine, our history is still being written. Let’s say you would like to learn which countries officially recognize Emergency Medicine (EM) as a specialty, and want to make a beautiful interactive infographic depicting these countries with their official EM recognition years (Because, why not?). It should be an easy task, right? WRONG.
What is your guess?
How many countries recognize Emergency Medicine as a specialty?
How many countries recognize Emergency Medicine as a specialty?
— İbrahim Sarbay (@ibrahimsarbay) May 12, 2019
Acil Tıp kaç ülkede bir uzmanlık dalı olarak kabul edilmektedir?
Even though it seems like a simple question which should have a clear answer, the answer is somewhat of a conundrum. There are a few difficulties for the answer. First of all, what is the definition of “recognition”? Could it be possible to consider having an EM residency program or the presence of EM specialists in a country as recognition? Probably not. Secondly, some of the countries recognize EM as a specialty but the exact year of recognition is unclear. Also, the answer may vary between articles and makes it hard to choose one. To make things clear, we have accepted the definition of “recognition” as a country’s official approvement of Emergency Medicine as a primary specialty. Countries recognizing EM as a supra-specialty (such as Switzerland) were also considered as a recognizing country in our list.
Anyway, we have rolled our sleeves up and dug deep. Many articles and tweets later, we had all the data available on this topic. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time an article or blog post lists EM’s official dates of recognition for the entire world. We have also taken one step further and showed them on a neat interactive map.
So here we go: As of 05/2019, there are 82 countries in the world which recognize EM as a specialty. 13 countries from Africa, 27 countries from Asia, 13 countries from the America, 27 countries from Europe, and two countries from Oceania recognize EM.
As a well-known fact, the first two countries to recognize EM as a specialty are the United States and the U.K. Which are the latest? Germany and Denmark are the most recent of these countries, as both of them recognized EM in 2018. Perhaps, one year later, there will be new countries which welcome EM specialty. Who knows?
Shall we take a look at the current situation in an eye-pleasing way? Of course! You can view our interactive map right here. You can view maps with colors corresponding to the years of EM recognition for each country in the world (darker the color, earlier the date) in Figure 1. You can also view continental maps for Africa, Asia, Americas, Europe and Oceania in Figures 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, respectively.
Figure 1. Countries Recognize Emergency Medicine as a Specialty
WORLD
Figure 2. Countries Recognize Emergency Medicine as a Specialty
AFRICA
Figure 3. Countries Recognize Emergency Medicine as a Specialty
ASIA
Figure 4. Countries Recognize Emergency Medicine as a Specialty
AMERICA
Figure 5. Countries Recognize Emergency Medicine as a Specialty
EUROPE
Figure 6. Countries Recognize Emergency Medicine as a Specialty
OCEANIA
For the ones who believe nothing is better than a list, all countries are listed in alphabetical order in Table 1. Table 1. List of counties which recognize EM as a specialty (alphabetical order).
| Country Name | Year of Recognition |
| Albania | 2011 |
| Argentina | 2010 |
| Australia | 1993 |
| Bahrain | 2001 * |
| Belgium | 2005 |
| Bulgaria | 1996 |
| Botswana | 2011 |
| Brazil | 2016 |
| Canada | 1979 |
| Chile | 2013 |
| Colombia | 2005 |
| Costa Rica | 1994 |
| Croatia | 2009 |
| Cuba | 2000 § |
| Czech Republic | 2013 |
| Denmark | 2018 |
| Dominican Republic | 2000 |
| Egypt | 2003 |
| Estonia | 2015 |
| Ethiopia | 2010 |
| Finland | 2012 |
| France | 2015 |
| Georgia | 2015 |
| Germany | 2018 # |
| Ghana | 2015 |
| Greece | 2017 # |
| Haiti | 2014 |
| Hong Kong | 1997 |
| Hungary | 2003 |
| Iceland | 1992 |
| India | 2009 |
| Iran | 2002 |
| Iraq | 2013 |
| Ireland | 2003 |
| Israel | 2009 |
| Italy | 2008 |
| Japan | 2003 |
| Jordan | 2003 |
| Kenya | 2017 |
| Laos | 2017 |
| Lebanon | 2012 |
| Libya | 2013 |
| Lithuania | 2013 |
| Malaysia | 2002 |
| Malawi | 2010 |
| Malta | 2004 |
| Mexico | 1986 |
| Morocco | 2002 |
| Myanmar | 2012 |
| Netherlands | 1998 |
| New Zealand | 1995 |
| Nicaragua | 1993 |
| Norway | 2017 |
| Oman | 1999 |
| Pakistan | 2010 |
| Peru | 1999 |
| Philippines | 1988 |
| Poland | 1999 |
| Qatar | 2000 |
| Romania | 1999 |
| Rwanda | 2013 |
| Saudi Arabia | 2001 |
| Serbia | 1992 |
| Singapore | 1984 |
| Slovakia | 2003 |
| Slovenia | 2006 |
| South Africa | 2004 |
| South Korea | 1996 |
| Sri Lanka | 2011 |
| Sudan | 2011 |
| Sweden | 2015 |
| Switzerland | 2009 # |
| Taiwan | 1998 |
| Tanzania | 2011 |
| Thailand | 2003 |
| Tunisia | 2005 |
| Turkey | 1993 |
| United Arab Emirates | 2004 |
| United Kingdom | 1993 |
| United States | 1972 |
| Vietnam | 2010 |
| Yemen | 2000 |
* Exact year of EM recognition in Bahrain is unknown and establishing of The Bahrain Emergentologist Association (BEMASSO) in 2004 accepted as the recognition year for this infographic.
§ Cuba has an EM/intensive care unit (ICU) training program which was begun in 2000.
# EM is considered as a supra-specialty in Germany, Greece, and Switzerland.
That is all for now! Please feel free to share it and comment on this list. Also, please tell us if we had any countries left behind or if there were any mistakes. EM family grows every day!
Together we are stronger!
References and Further Reading
- Swanson RC, Soto NR, Villafuerte AG, Emergency medicine in Peru, J Emerg Med. 2005 Oct;29(3):353-6, DOI:10.1016/j.jemermed.2005.
02.013 - Garcia-Rosas C, Iserson KV, Emergency medicine in México, J Emerg Med. 2006 Nov;31(4):441-5, DOI:10.1016/j.jemermed.2006.
05.024 - Al-Azri NH, Emergency medicine in Oman: current status and future challenges,Int J Emerg Med. 2009 Dec 11;2(4):199-203. doi: 10.1007/s12245-009-0143-6.
- Sakr M, Wardrope J, Casualty, accident and emergency, or emergency medicine, the evolution, J Accid Emerg Med. 2000 Sep;17(5):314-9.
- Pek J.H., Lim S.H., Ho H.F., Emergency medicine as a specialty in Asia, Acute Med Surg. 2016 Apr; 3(2): 65–73, doi: 10.1002/ams2.154
- Fleischmann T, Fulde G.,Emergency medicine in modern Europe, Emerg Med Australas. 2007 Aug;19(4):300-2.
- Partridge R., Emergency medicine in Cuba: an update, Am J Emerg Med. 2005 Sep;23(5):705-6, DOI: 10.1016/j.ajem.2005.03.006.
- MacFarlane C, van Loggerenberg C, Kloeck W.,International EMS systems in South Africa–past, present, and future,Resuscitation. 2005 Feb;64(2):145-8,DOI:10.1016/j.
resuscitation.2004.11.003
Tunisia is one the first countries in africa to recognize EM as a speciality since 2005. I’m not sure about libya
Qatar is one of the first Arab countries that recognize Emergency medicine as a speciality from 1998
Yemen is recognizing EM as speciality and its emergency and disaster association is recognized by international federation of emergency medicine.
Lao PDR recognized in 2016 with first residency started in 2017! http://www.healthfrontiers.org
hola soy Felipe Salazar de Ecuador, estoy finalizando el postgrado de emergencia, en el Ecuador la especialidad si esta reconocida desde 1995, como puede contactarme con ustedes?.
hello i’m Felipe Salazar from Ecuador, i’m emergency physician, our speciality
is recognized sice 1995.
i would like to contact with you.
Although I love the fact that you wrote this article, the information about the Netherlands (being a acknowledged specialty since 1998) does not seem to be correct. I am an emergency physician from the Netherlands myself. The Dutch Society of Emergency Physicians was founded in 1999. Emergency Medicine was declared a ‘profile’ (which means recognized field of medicine) in 2008. However until this day (April 2020) emergency medicine unfortunately has still not been recognized as a (primary) specialty.
The Netherlands does not yet recognize Emergency Medicine as a medical specialty.
Hello, and thank you for your work, I am José Luis Ruiz, and I work as an emergency medicine doctor in a university hospital in Spain, although unfortunately, in my country, emergency medicine is not recognized yet, as a medical specialty in civil health, but since 2016 it has been recognized as a speciality in military health, it means that if you want to be trained as an emergency doctor in Spain, you must join the army and be accepted in the specialty program
Dear Doctor:
EM/ER was recognized in the US in 1979-80 in East Lansing, MI. The founder Dr. Wig(+6) was my
mentor since HS. But, a war broke out between MD & DO(osteopaths) on training and has been a ongoing bec of Practice Based vs Residency Based. PB was stopped abruptly despite much protest. ABEM Vs ABOEM Vs BCEM all argue their point, and still have many places that accept all
three. But, BCEM has lost the battle to compete w/others. Rural areas will even allow some GPs w/many ER hours to work; w/ FP or IM filling the gaps. But, most states will soon only take ABEM as the DOs have now joined MDs in training residents. You will never get all countries to agree in ER, as global knowledge of medicine is difficult to examine.