Intensive care medicine: A multidisciplinary competence-based approach

ABSTRACT

During the Covid-19 pandemic general interest in intensive care medicine emerged as besides a majority of other diseases and conditions also patients with Covid-19 pneumonia were treated by intensivists. This acute demand was taken as the rationale by the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM), which represents only a small portion of all intensivists throughout Europe, to launch an initiative to recognize Intensive Care Medicine in Europe as a medical specialty according to Annexe V of the European Directive on the recognition of professional qualifications. The discussion having intensive care medicine as a primary discipline is old and the disadvantages have been clearly stated long ago. Intensive care medicine according to the Multidisciplinary Joint Committee of Intensive Care Medicine (MJCICM) of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) should be multidisciplinary as this serves our patients best. During the pandemic, we learned that all specialties that cover Intensive Care Medicine in their training were able to treat affected patients and to provide intensivists to additionally built ICUs. Most of them were anaesthesiologists who were set free from the operating theatres because of the cancellation of many elective operations. However, other disciplines that provide high-level ICU care, such as internal medicine, surgery, neurosurgery and cardiac surgery were also recruited to face the pandemic. With a single, primary specialty, this would have not been possible on that scale. Certainly, for all highly trained specialists, free movement throughout Europe is an important goal. Therefore, training in Intensive Care Medicine throughout Europe should be according to a common competence-based curriculum and this training and examination on top of a mother discipline should be recognized as a ‘particular qualifications’ throughout Europe. From our point of view, regarding Intensive Care Medicine, this approach in combination with competence-based training and examination in tandem with a primary discipline allows free movement of our doctors and also serves our patients best, for the future and also for the current and future pandemics. © Anästh Intensivmed 2021;62513–516 Aktiv Druck & Verlag GmbH.