HINDERED DEVELOPMENT EMS systems in lower-middle income countries face daunting challenges

摘要

Background: Prehospital care is an unmet public health need in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). LMICs carry 90% of the entire global burden of traumatic injuries, which has a significant impact due to both mortality and disability. EMS has the potential to ameliorate a large portion of this burden in LMICs, however EMS development in many LMICs is in its infancy and remains underdeveloped compared to the significant existing need for prehospital care and transport. Researchers recently conducted a literature review to define the current state of EMS establishment and development as well as the barriers to its growth in lower-middle income countries, a subset of LMICs. Methods: The researchers used a previously published World Bank definition of lower-middle income countries to target 48 countries for a thorough literature search performed using electronic medical databases (CINAHL, Ovid Medline, EMBASE) and Google Scholar for grey literature.