We were disappointed to see reference to emergency room in the article by Hu and Hall.Reference Hu and Hall1 As a family physician and psychiatrists, the authors can be forgiven for not realizing how outdated this term is, but we had hoped that the reviewers would have taken the chance to point out to them that the emergency department is exactly that, as a specific “department” with a specific mandate, and appropriately controlled by a specific specialty.
Later in the same edition, in the excellent commentary by Brian Deady,Reference Deady2 we hear of the arrival of “ambulance attendants.” This labelling of our prehospital colleagues by the vehicle that they use to transport their/our patients is as offensive as the term ERP or emergency room physician, defining us by where we do much of our work rather than what we do. Two sentences later, he correctly uses the word paramedic, with the earlier term likely for poetic effect, but the offence is already taken!
We have come a long way in our specialties in the past years; however, our identities are still very important!
