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.