Emergency medicine centre joins international body

6 December 2004

The Centre for Ambulance and Paramedic Studies at Peninsula campus is home to a new field of the international Cochrane Collaboration, an organisation that distributes the latest evidence-based health care information worldwide.

Prehospital and emergency health is one of only 12 registered fields worldwide within the collaboration. Others include the cancer network, complementary medicine, health care of older people and occupational health.

The prehospital and emergency health field coordinator at Peninsula campus, Ms Erin Smith, said the journey to have the field of expertise registered began in 1997.

"The Cochrane Collaboration is regarded as the most rigorous source of evidence-based healthcare, so it is a wonderful reflection of the growth of the prehospital and emergency health setting that this unique area is now recognised as a Cochrane entity," she said.

The Cochrane Collaboration produces and disseminates reviews of health care interventions and promotes the search for evidence through clinical trials and other studies of interventions.

Those who prepare the reviews are mostly health care professionals who work voluntarily in editorial teams overseeing the preparation and maintenance of the reviews.

Examples of the type of work the field might be asked to prepare were reviews of the best method of intubation by emergency health care workers, or the most appropriate treatment for particular asthma attacks.

"Our membership is unique as it includes clinicians as well as researchers and academics," Ms Smith said. "There is a growing recognition of the importance of the field, and we have registered members worldwide."

Monash University's Centre for Ambulance and Paramedic Studies at Peninsula campus provides academic programs primarily for the Metropolitan Ambulance Service and Rural Ambulance Victoria. The centre provides ambulance-based training for ambulance service employees and a pre-employment course, the Bachelor of Emergency Health (Paramedic), for school leavers and students from authorised courses.

Ms Erin Smith is available for media interviews on 9904 4213. For further information, contact Ms Allison Harding in the Monash University Media Communications office on +61 3 9905 2085.