Emergency medicine

Treating an emergency patient at home could look like this image (which was made for illustration only)

Emergency medicine is a part of medicine that focuses on caring for people whose life or health is in immediate danger, for example from a serious injury, heart attack, or poisoning. Emergency Medicine (abbreviation EM) is sometimes also called Accident and Emergency Medicine (AEM).

EM doctors specialize in treating diseases and injuries that need immediate care. These kind of diseases or injuries are called emergencies. If they are not helped quickly, the person may become more sick or even die.

Doctors that specialize in EM usually work in Emergency Departments. This is also called a casualty department or Emergency room. These are places in hospitals where people go if they have an emergency. They may have a red cross or red letters on the sign to show it is the Emergency Department. This way, even people who cannot read know where to go. A separate unit of the hospital is Intensive Care, which is for less than life threatening but still serious emergencies.

Doctors who specialize in EM must know about all of the different aspects of medicine to some level, but not quite as much as a specialist would. They treat people of all ages. They treat both men and women. They must know how to treat any kind of emergency. But they may not know quite as much about the treatments of some diseases or injury, because they are too specialized or serious.

Many people go to the Emergency Department with problems that are not emergencies. So EM doctors must also know about how to treat non-emergencies.

Emergency Medicine Media

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Related pages

• Emergency medical services
• First aid