The quality of medical care in Taiwan has improved steadily and significantly in terms of clinical services, research, and education in recent years. Among many disciplines in medicine, the most concerned by the public probably is the improvement in the quality of care in the field of emergency and critical care because this field is directly related to the life and death of the patients. How to improve the quality of care in the field of emergency and critical care in Taiwan is therefore one of the most challenging issues in Taiwan. Moreover, within the framework of National Health Insurance (NHI), the emergency and critical care is always the hot spot of medical economics because it incurs a higher cost than other fields of medicine. Hence, in the cost-effect-oriented NHI system, how to give good medical care to the patents and maintain good quality of medical care with limited resources has become one of the most important prerequisites for the personnel engaging in emergency and medical care.

        Clinical service, research, and education are 3 major missions of the medical centers. Among them, the services to the patients in emergency and critical conditions may be the most important one. A good amount of quality specialists in the field of emergency and critical care medicine is essential to the improvement of quality emergency and critical care. Therefore, an institution devoting to the research and education of emergency and critical care medicine should meet the needs of almost all medical centers in Taiwan. Because of the awareness of these needs, National Yang-Ming University established the Institute of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine some years ago.

        Specifically, the aim of the Institute of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine are: (a) To equip students with specialist-level knowledge of emergency medicine, critical care medicine, trauma, disaster management, etc; (b) To train the students in doing researches on emergency and critical care medicine so that they can conduct independent research in this field; (c) To supply the medical centers in Taiwan with quality specialists in research and education in the field of emergency and critical care medicine so that the quality of emergency and critical care can be improved.

        The Institute currently offers Master's programs for students with either clinical background (physicians) or paramedical background (non-physicians). In addition to their medical or paramedical background, students are requested to have advanced clinical knowledge concerning emergency and critical care medicine. Therefore, in addition to basic courses, clinical problems are the center of the Institute's lecture courses. An inspiring, logical and analytical thinking process will be adopted so that the students can discover and solve the problems related to emergency and critical care medicine in an easy-to-understand way.

        In addition to the required courses in Advanced Emergency Medicine, Advanced Critical Care Medicine and Journal Reading and Progress Report, the Institute offers a wide range of courses, including Environmental Emergency Medicine, Heart Rate Variability Analysis, Pediatric Critical Care, Geriatric Critical Care, Tele Medicine, Critical Care in Immunology, Medical Economics, Traumatology, Infectious Disease, Toxicology, Thesis, Medical Law and Critical Bioethics, Instrumental Technique, Evidence-based Medicine, Molecular Cell Biology, Animal Models and Technology of Medical Research, Advanced Pharmacokinetics, etc.

        Emergency and critical care medicine covers a wide range of medical disciplines. Although it may overlap with some sub-specialties to a certain extent, the emergency and critical care medicine may treat problems in these sub-specialties in greater depth mainly because of the emergency and severity of the patient’s condition. Therefore, the emergency and critical care medicine is sometimes known as the medicine in medicine. Topics concerning the reduction in the mortality rate of emergent and critically ill patients and the improvement in quality of emergency and critical care are of interest to the faculty and students of the Institute. For instance, the development of instruments for early diagnosis and evaluation of indications in the Emergency Department and Intensive Care Unit, the development of invasive treatment technology or new medication, and economic policies related to emergency and critical care medicine are the study subjects of the Institute.