They served as excellent models upon which to base teaching. Ultimately, as new knowledge, experience, and evidence accumulated relative to these critical pathways, deviations from the pathways occurred. Often such deviations became integrated into a new set of revised standards. Thus, we learned that standards and critical pathways are not chiseled in stone, but must be evaluated continually and modified as new information accumulates. Lastly, it is worthwhile to examine templates and their purpose.
Templates are patterns that provide structure.
12 Such was the intent in the development of the initial Utstein Templates. It was clear that the reporting of data derived from the study of victims of cardiac arrest was unpatterned and hence, different studies could not be analyzed in a similar fashion. The Template for reporting data from cardiac arrest was developed with the prodding of Tore Laerdal, by a group of recognized experts at the Utstein Abbey in Stavanger, Norway. The Templates presented in this issue for the reporting of data acquired from victims of major trauma establishes the basic structure necessary to make sense out of the plethora of data being collected. The same will hold for the development of research techniques and reporting of data regarding medical responses to disasters, and hopefully, for all disaster responses.