Emergency care is improving throughout the world and thousands of lives are being saved each year. However, there are still too many patients who die before help reaches them in the form of advanced rescue and definitive emergency care techniques. In an effort to improve emergency care throughout the world, the International Committee of Emergency and Disaster Medicine meets bi­ annually. This meeting takes place in Mainz, Germany in September in order to discuss issues, exchange information, and establish re­ commendations designed to improve emergency care. The group is in~ dependent of political, national, racial, religious, or commercial influences and, in this sense, similar to the Club of Rome which attempts advances in sociology, biology and natural sciences. There­ fore, the organization could be called the "Club of Mainz" for the field of emergency and disaster medicine. The following book contains the proceedings of the International Symposiom on "Mobile Intensive Care Units and Advanced Emergency Care Units" at Mainz from September 24-27, 1973, and the discussions evoked by the first activities of the "Club of Mainz" and the inter­ nationally acknowledged "Recommendations". At this time we also announce the next meeting and International Symposium on Disaster Medicine, open to the public, organized by the "Club of Mainz" (October 1 - 2, 1977).

Associate editor: P. Rheindorf, P. Sands