Emergency Medicine in Norway is a relatively new specialty, receiving recognition as a primary specialty by the Minister of Health only in 2017.

The Norwegian Society for Emergency Medicine (NORSEM) was established in 2010 by Dr. Lars Petter Bjørnsen, a Norwegian physician who completed his emergency medicine residency training in the United States. Over the next several years, an enthusiastic group of physicians, from both Norway and abroad, established pilot projects, lobbied politicians, enlisted the media, and conducted a letter-writing campaign (including a letter of support from then IFEM president Dr. Jim Holliman) to convince the Norwegian government to acknowledge the necessity of emergency medicine and grant primary specialty recognition. Details of the history of emergency medicine in Norway can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/emp2.12197

Physicians with a knowledge base in the core curriculum of emergency medicine were “grandfathered” in as emergency physicians starting in 2019, and a short while later, Norway began training its first residents. It was at that time that NORSEM became a member of IFEM. Since then, NORSEM has consistently been present and engaged at assembly meetings, both online and in person at the International Conference on Emergency Medicine (ICEM), actively participated in Special Interest Groups, and most recently sponsored Paraguay’s IFEM membership.

In Norway, the vast majority of physicians belong to the national physicians’ trade union. Each specialty then has its own sub-union. As the new Norwegian emergency medicine specialty has grown and developed over the past several years, physicians who were previously involved in NORSEM, as well as newly recognized and trained emergency physicians, have now become members of the new union, the Norwegian College of Emergency Medicine (NCEM). NCEM is Norway’s official governing body for emergency medicine training and emergency physicians and will now represent Norway at the General Assembly in IFEM.

NORSEM was instrumental in the development of the specialty and is delighted to hand the reigns over to NCEM. At NCEM’s helm is the president, Dr. Jørn Einar Rasmussen who, by the way, was the first physician to be grandfathered as an emergency physician in Norway in July 2019. NORSEM will become an associate member of IFEM and can provide guidance to NCEM if needed or desired. NORSEM will likely eventually be phased out as its mission has been completed.

Please join me, NORSEM president, Dr. Kåre Løvstakken, and NORSEM in welcoming NCEM to IFEM. Going forward, NCEM will be the voice of emergency medicine from Norway. Velkommen!