Friends,
It is estimated that simplistic improvements in emergency care can reduce death from acute medical conditions by about 50% in low- and middle-income countries around the world. That fact led the World Health Organization to develop the Acute Care Action Network (ACAN) – an international group of 90 organizations that is working to implement tools for better EMS, emergency medicine, acute surgery, and critical care in these countries.
Two weeks ago, Dr. Erin Noste, our Chair of the International Committee, and I attended the second in-person meeting of the ACAN and other meetings related to the World Health Assembly in Geneva. We left there with many observations and opportunities for NAEMSP to help in improving basic EMS care in these countries.
How can we contribute? We can assist with tools and education resources for basic emergency training, but we also have the perspective of physician medical directors that are the core of essential medical oversight for developing EMS systems. While our FOMO (Fundamentals of Medical Oversight Course) has principles that can be useful for advancing physician medical oversight in countries with limited EMS care, our quality improvement course principles might be even more important to these growing EMS systems.
One of our observations was that of the 90 associations that make up ACAN, only NAEMSP and the Asian Association for EMS are the only organizations with a sole focus on EMS/paramedicine – I purposefully use the term paramedicine, because it is the term used for EMS in many places across the world. Many of these organizations peripherally touch EMS, and there are many with a focus on emergency medicine, including the International Federation of Emergency Medicine. We realized that there is no international federation of EMS-focused associations to speak and work with a united voice for EMS. NAEMSP can contribute significantly to the ACAN initiatives to improve EMS care, and I also think it is time for an international group of EMS associations to organize and speak with a united voice for EMS/paramedicine around the world.
Dr. Noste and I will be working with the international committee on our opportunities to assist ACAN on their projects.
Douglas F. Kupas, MD, NRP, FAEMS
President, NAEMSP
Representatives of ACAN organizations related to EMS attend the second in-person meeting of the group in Geneva, Switzerland in May 2026. Included in the photo are NAEMSP President Douglas Kupas, MD, NAEMSP International Committee Chair Erin Noste, MD, Pauline Convocar (President-Elect of the International Federation of Emergency Medicine), Gayathri Nadarajan (Asian Association of EMS), Dr. Lee Wallis (Lead for Emergency Care at the World Health Organization), and Dr. Matthew Ma (Asian Association of EMS).