Recommended guidelines for reporting on emergency medical dispatch when conducting research in emergency medicine: the Utstein style.

OBJECTIVES: To establish a uniform framework describing the system and organisation of emergency medical response centres and the process of emergency medical dispatching (EMD) when reporting results from studies in emergency medicine and prehospital care. DESIGN AND RESULTS: In September 2005 a task force of 22 experts from 12 countries met in Stavanger; Norway at the Utstein Abbey to review data and establish a common terminology for medical dispatch centres including core and optional data to be used for health monitoring, benchmarking and future research.