ReviewInternational journal of emergency medicine2026
Prehospital data in the dark: a scoping review of the widening gap between EMS demand and the evidence to meet it.
Review in International journal of emergency medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPrehospital emergency medical services generate data at unprecedented scale, yet the scientific evidence base underpinning this field remains thin relative to operational activity. This scoping review examines the challenges of prehospital data utilisation and research conduct, explores methodological limitations of the existing literature, considers the challenge of linking prehospital data to in-hospital outcomes, and discuss the economic and structural case for investment in prehospital research capacity.
methodsA structured literature search was conducted across PubMed/MEDLINE combining MeSH terms and free-text keywords across three conceptual domains: prehospital EMS systems, electronic health records and data infrastructure, and health services research capacity and evidence generation. The search was updated in May 2025. An integrated EMS systems audit examined publicly available annual reports and operational data from 15 EMS systems selected randomly to explore research output reporting practices within EMS systems.
resultsPrehospital research is constrained by the operational environment, ethical and governance complexity, fragmented data systems, absence of linkage infrastructure, inadequate funding mechanisms that remains underdeveloped in most services. The updated search retrieved 1,886 records; after duplicate removal and title/abstract screening, 11 peer-reviewed studies meeting the eligibility criteria were included. None of the 15 EMS systems audited reported research output as a formal key performance indicator, with the sole exception of Denmark. Publications per 100,000 patient contacts ranged from 3.65 in the USA to 0.40 in Saudi Arabia.
conclusionAddressing the prehospital evidence gap requires coordinated investment at organisational, national, and international levels in the technical, institutional, and cultural conditions that enable scientific research. The cost of operating without an adequate evidence base is reflected in the resource allocation decisions made by services.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.