International Federation for Emergency Medicine Model Curriculum for Emergency Medicine Specialists

Mateos Rodríguez AA

To meet a critical and growing need for emergency physicians and emergency medicine

resources worldwide, physicians must be trained to deliver time-sensitive interventions and

lifesaving emergency care. Currently, there is no globally recognized, standard curriculum

that defines the basic minimum standards for specialist trainees in emergency medicine. To

address this deficit, the International Federation for Emergency Medicine (IFEM) convened a

committee of international physicians, health professionals, and other experts in emergency

medicine and international emergency medicine development to outline a curriculum for

training of specialists in emergency medicine. This curriculum document represents the

consensus of recommendations by this committee. The curriculum is designed to provide a

framework for educational programs in emergency medicine. The focus is on the basic

minimum emergency medicine educational content that any emergency medicine

physician specialist should be prepared to deliver on completion of a training program. It is

designed not to be prescriptive but to assist educators and emergency medicine leadership

to advance physician education in basic emergency medicine no matter the training venue.

The content of this curriculum is relevant not just for communities with mature emergency

medicine systems but in particular for developing nations or for nations seeking to expand

emergency medicine within the current educational structure. We anticipate that there will

be wide variability in how this curriculum is implemented and taught. This variability will

reflect the existing educational milieu, the resources available, and the goals of the

institutions’ educational leadership with regard to the training of emergency medicine

specialists.

Mateos Rodríguez AA