International Association for Trauma Surgery and Intensive Care (IATSIC): a historical vignette.

IATSIC was conceived in the mid-1980s by Martin Allgöwer. Its goal was to provide an international forum and to disseminate knowledge of trauma care globally. It has met and continues to meet this goal. IATSIC provides a forum for scholarly exchange and thus for elevating the global discussion of trauma. The organization propagates standards of care and provides courses for training surgeons and other healthcare professionals. Further, IATSIC continues to provide a solid foundation for quality practice and management of trauma by emphasizing not only the need to prioritize care of the injured worldwide, but also the knowledge, skills, tactics, and techniques needed to provide the care in a wide variety of environments around the globe. With the other specialty societies (IAES, IASMEN, ISDS, and BSI), it provides a substantial and sustaining underpinning for the ongoing activities of ISS/SIC. Martin Allgöwer died on October 27, 2007, but his vision lives on (Fig. 6).