The death of a Princess and the formulation of medical competence

This study outlines a genealogy of the French and United States’ Emergency Medical Service (EMS) systems. This is done to contextualise claims that Princess Diana could have survived had her crash taken place in the USA, and to enrich the EMS debate regarding field-treatment vs. rapid hospital admission for trauma victims. A historical analysis is offered for the disproportionate amount of available data on penetrating trauma, and proportionate deficit of data on blunt trauma with respect to total North American and Western European trauma epidemiology. The impact of US biomedical knowledge and culture on French medical practice is evaluated and used to understand how foreign knowledge is negotiated in local medical practice. The paper concludes by showing how, in response to a challenge by American biomedical standards of practice and formulation of competence, French pre-hospital Emergency Physicians have contextualised the origins of these standards as well as their local relevance in order to preserve an integrated notion of competence.This study outlines a genealogy of the French and United States’ Emergency Medical Service (EMS) systems. This is done to contextualise claims that Princess Diana could have survived had her crash taken place in the USA, and to enrich the EMS debate regarding field-treatment vs. rapid hospital admission for trauma victims. A historical analysis is offered for the disproportionate amount of available data on penetrating trauma, and proportionate deficit of data on blunt trauma with respect to total North American and Western European trauma epidemiology. The impact of US biomedical knowledge and culture on French medical practice is evaluated and used to understand how foreign knowledge is negotiated in local medical practice. The paper concludes by showing how, in response to a challenge by American biomedical standards of practice and formulation of competence, French pre-hospital Emergency Physicians have contextualised the origins of these standards as well as their local relevance in order to preserve an integrated notion of competence.