The PEMSIG leadership has been approached by the editorial team of Current Opinion in Pediatrics with the request to write a paper on the development of PEM globally. The effort led by Camilo Gutierrez, Simon Chu, and Rod Lim, performed a thorough literature review of any PEM development-related publications over the last 10-15 years and reached out to selected renowned experts in Pediatric EM representing several multinational PEM societies globally.

The initial questions related to PEM  were focused on recognition of the specialty by universities or governmental bodies, and if so, further discussion regarding training programs, PEM academic bodies or societies, past successes, and current or future challenges. 

As expected, there was a paucity of peer-reviewed available literature regarding actual PEM development as a subspecialty of Pediatrics or Emergency Medicine. One important publication from the World Health Organization ( A global mandate to strengthen emergency, critical and operative care published in 2023) does recommend strengthening acute care systems which can be used as a resource to push for the development of pediatric-specific systems to care for critically ill and injured children in every region of the world.

20 world-class PEM experts offered their professional experience working with ill and injured children in their respective regions, and the authors were able to distill the information in a succinct publication. Key priorities for the development of Pediatric Emergency Medicine globally are also discussed in some detail. The submission is currently under review by the editorial team and if successful will be published in the summer edition of this journal.