Emergency medicine (also called emergentology) is a medical specialty in which physicians (DOs and MDs) care for patients with acute illnesses or injuries which require immediate medical attention. While not usually providing long-term or continuing care, emergency medicine physicians diagnose a variety of illnesses and undertake acute interventions to resuscitate and stabilize patients. Emergency medicine physicians practice in hospital emergency departments, in pre-hospital settings via emergency medical services, other locations where initial medical treatment of illness takes place, and recently the intensive-care unit. Just as clinicians operate by immediacy rules under large emergency systems, emergency practitioners aim to diagnose emergent conditions and stabilize the patient for definitive care.
Physicians specializing in emergency medicine in the US and Canada can enter fellowships to receive credentials in subspecialties. These are palliative medicine, critical care medicine, medical toxicology, wilderness medicine, pediatric emergency medicine, sports medicine, emergency medical services, and undersea and hyperbaric medicine.
Read more about Emergency Medicine: Scope, History, Work, Epidemiology
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