title: Emergency medicine in Sri Lanka: the inevitable evolution to a new specialty.
abstract: Sri Lanka is a low-income country with a relatively advanced, equitable and accessible health-care system offered to its 20 million populations free of charge through a national pro-poor health policy. Its weaknesses in emergency services, however, surfaced in 2004 when it faced the Tsunami, the worst natural disaster of the world of the 21st century. Since then, the local health community with the assistance of the government and foreign aid agencies have embarked on a path to establish emergency services, improve its preparedness for disaster management and establishment of emergency medicine training. The present article traces this path and how it is evolving in the country.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. tan@alfred.org.au
authors.forename: Gim
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Chula
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Goonasekera
authors.forename: Shane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Curran
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020380:Needs Assessment; D013188:Sri Lanka