International comparison of prehospital trauma care systems.

Objective: Given the recent emphasis on developing prehospital trauma care globally, we embarked upon a multicentre study to compare trauma patients' outcome within and between countries with technician-operated advanced life support (ALS) and physician-operated (Doc-ALS) emergency medical service (EMS) systems. These environments represent the continuum of prehospital care in high income countries with more advanced prehospital trauma care systems.

Methods: Five countries with ALS-EMS system and four countries with Doc-ALS EMS system provided us with de-identified patient-level data from their national or local trauma registries.

Emergency Medical Service (EMS) systems in developed and developing countries.

Objectives: To compare patient- and injury-related characteristics of trauma victims and pre-hospital trauma care systems among different developed and developing countries.

Method: We collated de-identified patient-level data from national or local trauma registries in Australia, Austria, Canada, Greece, Germany, Iran, Mexico, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. Patient and injury-related characteristics of trauma victims with injury severity score (ISS) >15 and the pre-hospital trauma care provided to these patients were compared among different countries.