[Profile and specialization of the chief of emergency medical services]

The specific task of emergency medicine consists of the limitation of mortality and morbidity caused by the repercussion on vital system functioning of acute illness and trauma. This task has to be realized within a structure including the mobile emergency care system and the emergency department. The chief of such a structure has to be a medical doctor. It will be a full-time job, since continuity of service is essential. Emergency medicine is closely related to intensive care, together indicated in the USA as 'critical care medicine'. Nevertheless important differences are obvious, due to the fact that in emergency medicine diagnosis is as important as supportive therapy, while it functions within a specific structure and is handling an as well qualitatively as quantitatively uncontrollable workload. As far, chiefs of emergency departments became experts through self-study and attending postgraduate teaching sessions, as well as through learning from their peers, but the expertise required by the chief of emergency medicine will in the future make a specific curriculum indispensable.