[Postgraduate trauma education for surgeon--from the veiwpoint of trauma and emergency physicians].

A recent important topic in the field of trauma care is the elimination of "preventable death." Since patients' satisfactory prognosis and good recovery mainly depend upon the success of the initial evaluation and care, the responsibility of physicians who first come into contact with trauma patients in the emergency room is especially heavy. Many general surgeons examine trauma patients, although, unfortunately they have few opportunities for training in how to deal with those patients in the present educational program. Traumatology should be one of the most important areas of surgery, and therefore this paper emphasizes that every surgeon needs to be educated and trained in an adequate curriculum of trauma care. The Japanese Association for Acute Medicine could help by offering the Japan Advanced Trauma Evaluation and Care (JATEC) training program. JATEC proposes standardized guidelines as well as a nationwide the educational program for trauma management.