Look around the world, focus on Asia: the establishment of the Asia Society of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine
Organizations
Asia Society of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine was co-founded by Sir Run-Run Shaw Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, AME Publishing Company, and Chinese Journal of Emergency Medicine in 2017.
Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, founded in 1994, was donated by the Hong Kong famous industrialist Sir Run Run Shaw, and supported by Zhejiang Provincial People’s government. Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital is the first public hospital accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI). In the course of development of more than twenty years, the hospital has been focusing on the reform of traditional management mode, using modern management theory and method, implementing scientific management of the hospital, and exploring the international “Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital model”. The hospital received extraordinary sustained and rapid development. By the end of 2006, The JCI committee stated that the hospital reached international level in its quality of medical care, safety and management (http://www.srrsh.com/).
AME Publishing Company is a globally active open access publisher specializing in the publication of medical journals and books across the broad spectrum of science, technology and medicine. Combining the highest editorial standards with cutting-edge publishing technologies, AME has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journals (5 indexed in SCIE and 18 indexed in PubMed), predominantly in English (some are translated into Chinese), covering various fields of medicine including oncology, pulmonology, cardiothoracic disease, andrology, urology and so forth (the introduction of AME is also available on the website: http://www.amegroups.com/pages/view/about).
The Chinese Journal of Emergency Medicine is an academic journal hosted by the Chinese Medical Association that represents the level of emergency medicine in China. The first issue of the journal launched in 1990 was named “Emergency Medicine”, which was later renamed as “Chinese Journal of Emergency Medicine” in the first issue of 2001. It has now covered all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), and has been in connection with the international emergency medicine community. The Editorial Committee of Chinese Journal of Emergency Medicine is formed from a number of national and overseas emergency and ICU medical experts. The Fourth Editorial Board has 4 consultants, 100 board members, and 50 corresponding editors. The reviewers are from all over the country. Chinese Journal of Emergency Medicine is a platform that gathers medical staff in China engaged in emergency and critical care clinical work, especially medical professionals in junior and senior clinical practice, scientific and technological personnel engaged in basic theoretical research in emergency medicine and scientific research managers. The journal mainly reports latest research achievements and clinical experience in emergency medicine in China with clinical, teaching and research personnel in emergency medicine or related disciplines as the main subjects. The purpose of this journal is to carry out the guidelines and policies of the party and the state, realize the policy of combining theory with practice, popularize, improve and reflect the progress of clinical research in emergency medicine, and promote the academic exchange of emergency medicine locally and internationally. The columns include review, expert forum, basic research, clinical research, exchange of experience, pre-hospital emergency treatment, guideline, case report and others. It reports on the latest progress of emergency medicine in China and information released by the Chinese Medical Association (http://www.cem.org.cn/).
Background for the establishment of ASECCM
Asia takes up 60% of the world’s population and has a large population of patients. However, the clinical practice guidelines are mainly drafted by refereeing evidence from the population of western countries. Thus, the directness of the evidence might be compromised according to the GRADE framework. For instance, there is a standard protocol in the framework to make recommendations based on evidence (1,2), in which the directness of the evidence is an important component. The recommendation class for Asian patients will be downgraded if only evidence from Caucasian patients is available. There are significant differences between Asian and Western countries in terms of genetic background, culture, medical resources, education and lifestyle. These differences prohibit direct application of guidelines from Western countries to our patients. Thus, it is important to generate high quality evidence based on Asia population.
The missions of ASECCM
The primary missions of ASECCM include:
- writing clinical practice guidelines and consensus by focusing on Asia population;
- promoting training of nurses and doctors in emergency and critical care medicine;
- helping nurses and doctors in emergency and critical care medicine to get high-quality career channel.
First session members of ASECCM
The first meeting of the foundation of ASECCM was held on March 9th, 2018 in Hangzhou (Figure 1). At the meeting, Prof. Hong from the Emergency Department of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital introduced the background and missions of ASECCM. Prof. Du from the Department of Critical Care Medicine of Peking Union Medical College Hospital hosted the voting process of the election of the first session of ASECCM board members. The organizational structure of ASECCM was elected as follows:
- Consultants:
- Guanyu Jiang (former president of Chinese Society of Emergency Medicine, Chinese Medical Association)
- Chunsheng Li (former president of Chinese Society of Emergency Medicine, Chinese Medical Association)
- Xuezhong Yu (former president of Chinese Society of Emergency Medicine, Chinese Medical Association)
- Yuguo Chen (president of Chinese Society of Emergency Medicine, Chinese Medical Association)
- Chuanzhu Lv (president-elect of Chinese Society of Emergency Medicine, Chinese Medical Association)
- Chairman:
- Xiujun Cai (president of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital)
- Vice Chairmen:
- Huadong Zhu (Peking Union Medical College Hospital)
- Bin Du (Peking Union Medical College Hospital)
- Mao Zhang (The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University)
- Jin Yan (Zhejiang Hospital)
- Daoyuan Wang (AME Publishing Company)
- Yuefeng Ma (editorial director of Chinese Journal of Emergency Medicine)
- Moritoki Egi (Japan)
- Tow Keang Lim (Singapore)
- Chae-Man Lim (Korea)
- Jan Hau Lee (Malaysia)
- Lijian Jian (Taiwan)
Official publication
The official publication of ASECCM is the Journal of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine (JECCM, http://jeccm.amegroups.com/). The Journal of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine (JECCM, J Emerg Crit Care Med, Online ISSN: 2521-3563) is an open access journal that publishes articles focusing on the area of emergency and critical care medicine. The journal covers both basic and clinical researches. JECCM aims to improve the care of patients with emergency and critical illness by acquiring, discussing, distributing, and promoting evidence-based information relevant to emergency physicians and intensivists. The journal publishes original articles, reviews, editorials, comments, study protocols and data descriptors. The journal has published focused issues on trauma care, ASECCM and pros and cons (3,4).
Acknowledgements
None.
Footnote
Conflicts of Interest: The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.
References
- Guyatt GH, Oxman AD, Vist GE, et al. GRADE: an emerging consensus on rating quality of evidence and strength of recommendations. BMJ 2008;336:924-6. [Crossref] [PubMed]
- Alonso-Coello P, Oxman AD, Moberg J, et al. GRADE Evidence to Decision (EtD) frameworks: a systematic and transparent approach to making well informed healthcare choices. 2: Clinical practice guidelines. BMJ 2016;353:i2089. [Crossref] [PubMed]
- Zhang Z, Hong Y, Gregory JS. Trauma care in China: a systematic review. J Emerg Crit Care Med 2017;1:33. [Crossref]
- Zhang Z. Pros and cons in medical decision making. J Emerg Crit Care Med 2018;2:19. [Crossref]
