Pre-hospital emergency medicine
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| System | Acute illness and injury |
|---|---|
| Significant diseases | |
| Significant tests | |
| Specialist | Pre-hospital emergency physician |
Pre-hospital emergency medicine (abbreviated PHEM) is a medical speciality concerned with the critical care, treatment and transfer of undifferentiated, unscheduled patients with serious illness or injury prior to their arrival at hospital. It is primarily a subspeciality of emergency medicine, but may also be practised by physicians from other acute specialities such as anaesthesia, intensive care medicine and acute medicine.
Practitioners in PHEM are usually well-integrated with local emergency medical services, and are dispatched together with emergency medical technicians or paramedics where potentially life-threatening trauma or illness is suspected that may benefit from immediate specialist medical treatment. This may involve travelling by car or air ambulance to the site.