The Specialized Care Teams (SCTs) provide additional specialized care supporting an existing local facility or a type 2 or 3 EMTs. The “rescEU EMT” project, funded by European Union, currently under development, aims to become the largest field hospital globally, made of 21 capacities, including EMTs and SCTs. The EMT2-ITA Regione Piemonte is in charge to develop the ICU Truck-based (together with Germany), Portable CT Scan, Dialysis and Oxygen Supply (together with Portugal and Türkiye) SCTs. Even though the WHO is working to publish technical notes for SCTs, at the moment, very few documentation is available.

To describe the process of designing SCTs in a multi-national project.

The working group was composed by medical doctors, nurses, engineers, technicians coming from the partner countries of the project. This multidisciplinary and multinational team carried out a 3-phase process: (1) a literature review searching for publications, international and national guidelines, legislations relevant for the SCTs under development; (2) the definition of standards of care and deployment’s policies for each SCTs; (3) a market survey to reach a realistic budget estimation and to investigate technologies, materials, and products.

The main result is the definition of the technical specifications for each SCT to be used during the next procurement phase. The main challenges were the tight deadlines, the harmonization of different medical practices and the level of the care to provide.

This model can offer valuable guidance and can be applied by other teams involved in the development of SCTs.