Emergency medicine deals with illness or injuries that require immediate medical attention. Emergency physicians usually work in the pre-hospital settings (Emergency Medical Service, EMC) or hospitals and undertake acute diagnostic investigations and interventions to resuscitate and stabilize patients. They arrange deposition i.e. admission to the hospital and provide episodic primary care.

Throughout the world innumerable cases of medical emergencies are occurring everyday. In Bangladesh, population pressures, poverty, stress of modern life, traffic and social problems and accidents etc cause medical emergency to multiply.

Emergency medicine was originally domain of surgeons, general practitioners and other general physicians but recently it has become recognized as speciality it its own rights with its own training programmes and academic posts. In developing countries, emergency medicine is still evolving. Sub specilisation of emergency medicine include disaster medicine, medical toxicology, ultrasonography, critical care medicine, hyperbaric medicine, sports medicine, palliative care or aerospace medicine. In Bangladesh, attending health professionals and paramedics are not properly trained in emergency medical care. The poorer people needing help sometimes die in the very units of emergency care.

All health personnel should know how to do CPR. All doctors should be trained how to do urgent tracheostomy in dire emergency even with a pen knife. Emergency physicians and nurses should be updated regularly through a continuing medical education on emergency care and management and develop new ideas. The cover story of this issue is on Emergency Medicine to aware ourselves about its importance.