Press Release: SCRED Associates with the University of Basel
The Swiss Center for Rescue, Emergency and Disaster Medicine Associates with University of Basel
The Swiss Center for Rescue, Emergency, and Disaster Medicine (SCRED) aims to create a national platform that would contribute to the development of this medical field. SCRED’s association with the University of Basel will be particularly beneficial for teaching and research in rescue, emergency and disaster medicine.
Concepts and strategies for rescue and emergency medicine in Switzerland are characterized by historically grown structures and in many areas are still based, at best, on empirical rather than on scientifically sound knowledge. To promote the further development of rescue, emergency, and disaster medicine, in July 2016 representatives of the Swiss Federation, the Swiss Society for Emergency and Rescue Medicine, the University and the University Hospital Basel established a coordinating platform with the SCRED.
With the SCRED, a nationally and internationally oriented competence center is being created that will focus on the care of emergency patients from the incident scene to hospitalization and to interface pre-hospital processes throughout the hospital’s emergency rooms and definitive initial treatment.
The center seeks to promote national and international networking, which is a key element in the optimal care of emergency patients. This networking is particularly important to enable medical services to successfully cope with major events and catastrophes.
The association strengthens teaching and research
The University Council of the University of Basel has agreed to the association of the SCRED with the University of Basel. This relationship will foster cooperation between the two institutions on a contractual basis, with the aim of promoting teaching, research, and further education in this field.
On one hand, the association will strengthen this medical specialty through the development of internationally recognized continuing education programs in Switzerland. On the other, it will promote research and the further development of rescue and disaster medicine with its interfaces to clinical emergency medicine through in-depth academic discussion. In particular, the SCRED wants to generate new findings in the areas of quality control and emergency medical care research.
Strengthening existing cooperation
The SCRED is based at the University Hospital Basel, with which there is a long-standing cooperation with the National Center for Disaster Medicine (Sanitätsdienstliche Führung Grossereignis (SFG)) to provide continuing and advanced education to medical professionals. The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Basel has done pioneering work in the area of teaching over the past ten years. The existing cooperation and the exchange of knowledge will be enhanced by the association between the University of Basel and the SCRED. The SCRED is headed by PD Dr. med. Mathias Zürcher, Senior Physician for Rescue and Disaster Medicine at the University Hospital Basel and Private-Docent at the University of Basel.
Further Information
Prof. Dr. med. Mathias Zürcher, Director, Swiss Center for Rescue, Emergency and Disaster Medicine (SCRED), phone: +41 61 328 73 80, email: mathias.zuercher@szrnk.ch
The University of Basel is a university of international renown, which performs excellently in research and teaching. Founded in 1460, it is the oldest university in Switzerland, with over 550 years of successful history.
