Advanced trauma life support.

From a family tragedy 20 years ago, ATLS has truly become an international trauma care program. Its success is demonstrated not only in the large number of physicians that have been trained, but also in the appearance of a number of affiliated courses with a similar structure, aimed at training medical, nursing, civilian and military personnel in how to deal with trauma in a variety of settings. A great deal of time and money has been spent on reaching this point and ATLS has undoubtedly had a profound effect on members of the medical profession worldwide. Few would doubt that ATLS has contributed to the overall improvement in the care of the victims of trauma and saved lives; yet we still lack the evidence to support what many of us feel so strongly about. We are now faced with the next major stage in the development of ATLS, namely to provide the evidence for the efficacy of this in an acceptable scientific manner. It is a challenge we should accept with the same enthusiasm that originally embraced ATLS, and where better to meet this challenge than within the countries of Europe?