Hoping for a domino effect: a new specialty in Sweden is a breath of fresh air for the development of Scandinavian emergency medicine

Editorial Friday the 6th of July, 2012, was a great day for emergency medicine (EM) in Scandinavia: As the first in Scandinavia, the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) announced that emergency medicine (Akutsjukvård) will become a primary medical specialty in Sweden. This is a great leap forward for emergency care in Scandinavia and should be celebrated. It should also prompt medical authorities the in rest of Scandinavia to acknowledge that a specialty in EM is an important element in modern, high-quality emergency care. EM is now a specialty (or supraspecialty) in more than 60 countries including USA, UK, Australia, The Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Finland [1]. The number of new countries that recognize EM as a specialty is rapidly increasing. The Swedes success with securing specialty status for EM is a case study in how a specialty in EM can be established as part of a concept of high quality emergency care. Learning from the experiences from Sweden could help improve emergency care in other countries, in particular Denmark and Norway.