Included in those nations are some that are otherwise quite developed but lack a complete emergency medical system, such as Armenia, China, Israel, Nicaragua, and the Philippines.

The idea of having such a conference had been first suggested by William Rutherford and Gautam Bodiwala at the Scientific Assembly of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) in 1984.

In 1988, at the second ICEM in Brisbane, Australia, the idea of creating an international emergency medicine organization was first proposed.

[6][7] Its initial purpose was to assist them in running ICEM, which was important because it allowed "the founding nations to share experiences, network, develop collaborations and assist trainees and specialists to rotate between countries and learn new approaches to old problems.

Since then, membership has grown rapidly, with 15 additional national emergency medicine organizations joining by 2003, bringing the total number of members to 19.

[1] By that point, IFEM has over 50 full, affiliate, and ex officio members, resulting in a board whose size was unwieldy.

[12] To replace the former Board, which previously represented all members, the IFEM Assembly was created.

[17] One of the goals of IFEM is to equip nations to develop emergency medical systems, and one key component of doing so is to identify the aspects of training that are essential for health care providers.

This initiative seeks to provide a minimum basic standard that can be tailored to the specific needs of the various nations implementing training in emergency medicine.

It is targeted towards all medical students in order to produce a minimum competency in emergency care for all physicians, regardless of their specialty.

"[10] The IFEM has played a part in helping to increase global acceptance of the specialty of emergency medicine.

[5] Additionally, IFEM serves as the "umbrella group" for all of the national and regional societies representing international emergency medicine.