Our health care has during the last decades undergone a rapid and extensive development. This has resulted in improved results of treatment and many diseases or conditions not possible to cure a few years ago can now be successfully treated. Simultaneously, the development in the community has led to justified demands on increased quality and security. This has generated new and advanced technologies and an increasing specialization with extensive knowledge restricted to narrow fields of competence. Today´s medical staff  is often working in limited sectors with access to advance techniques for diagnosis and treatment. This development is seen not only in high-technology countries but (to a varying extent) all around the world.
More advanced technology and increasing possibilities to cure also generates increasing costs. This leads to increasing demands on efficiency where every resource must be optimally 
utilized.  However, this means reduced reserve-capacity for unexpected high loads of casualties and critically ill, and this is a globally recognized problem: The vulnerability of our health care system to major incidents and disasters is increasing, parallel to a continuously increasing risk for such events due to the development of community.
All this leads to specific demands on knowledge and skills, in addition to the competence required for daily medical care.