Reflections on becoming a specialty and its impact on global emergency medical care: Our challenge for the future

This article considers the experience of the United States in developing its system of emergency care and reflects on the role played by the rise of the specialty of emergency medicine. Although the United States is in many ways unique, its emergency care system has developed to a high level of quality. It is important, therefore, to consider the extent to which the United States experience and its model of emergency medicine as a primary specialty of medicine may serve to guide future efforts to improve emergency medical care globallay.