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Welcome
to the official website of
The Society for Emergency Medicine India.
Emergency Medicine
(EM) is one of the youngest of medical specialties. In India, EM
in the formal and organised sense that it is practiced in developed
countries, is barely six years old.
The number of EM centres that meet the standards defined, is limited
to a handful. But, there are steadily increasing signals that the
specialty is gaining acceptance, and it is only a matter of time
before it becomes a mainstream medical specialisation.
The Society for Emergency Medicine India (SEMI) was formed in 1999
through the efforts of a small group of individuals. The first EMCON
was launched in Hyderabad and the first set of office bearers elected.
Since then, there has been a steady, encouraging growth in the size
and spirit of the society.
Detractors of the discipline see it as an attempt to fragment an
already severely compartmentalised profession, but, there is no
getting away from the reality that emergency care, when delivered
by certified specialists, is of a much higher quality than that
of casual practitioners in the traditional "Casualty Department"
of Indian hospitals.
There is a lot of work ahead. Considerable confusion prevails in
the perceived role of EM; it continues to be regarded as a flavour
of critical care by the authorities in charge of recognising medical
specialties. Quality standards and best practices have to be formulated
and publicised. Certification processes have to be standardised.
The recently popularised field of Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
in India has to be prevented from breaking up into diverse regional
groups lacking a unified standard.
SEMI is confident of meeting the challenges ahead of it.
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