The Center was originally formed in 1978 to bring the City of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine together to improve the quality and delivery of emergency medical services in Pittsburgh. Currently, the Center provides medical direction for the City of Pittsburgh Bureau of EMS.

In 1983, the Center approached city hospitals to join in an effort to create a community-based system of prehospital and emergency care. Those first member hospitals included: Presbyterian University, Montefiore, Children's, Eye and Ear, Magee, West Penn, Mercy and St. Francis. Later, the membership of the Center expanded to include: Shadyside, South Side, South Hills Health System, and Westmoreland Regional hospitals.

By 1981, the Office of Education and Research was formed. The Center's education programs attract students from all over the world. The Center's research is regularly presented at meetings nationally, is published in journals worldwide and receives numerous awards for its contributions to the advancement of emergency medicine.

The University of Pittsburgh Affiliated Residency in Emergency Medicine accepted its first class in 1981. Soon, residents were treating patients and working in emergency departments at Mercy, West Penn, Presbyterian University, Magee, Eye and Ear and Children's Hospitals. Residents also work with the City of Pittsburgh Bureau of EMS and fly on STAT MedEvac helicopters.

STAT MedEvac, a service of the Center for Emergency Medicine, provides air medical transport to patients with critical illnesses and/or injuries. In February 1984, STAT completed its first patient transport. The first base was established at Mercy Hospital. The program added a second helicopter in Greensburg, June 1986. The intensive care ground unit was put into operation May 1987. In October of that same year, a medical airplane for the national transport of critically-ill patients was added. In 1989, a third helicopter was based in Cranberry at St. Francis Medical Center - North. In June 1993, STAT MedEvac added an instrument-rated Dauphin AS-365N helicopter and expanded its base site at Allegheny County Airport. In 1994, the program added two air medical base sites -- one at Jefferson Hospital in the South Hills, the other at the Connellsville Airport in Fayette County. STAT MedEvac celebrated its ten year anniversary in 1994, and continues to enjoy tremendous growth in flight volumes. In 1995, STAT MedEvac established a helicopter base at Washington County Airport. This base provides quick response to Washington and Greene Counties, PA and neighboring parts of West Virginia and Ohio. In the same year, bases were established in Clarion (Clarion County) and Greenville (Mercer County). In 1996, STAT MedEvac upgraded the helicopters at the Connellsville and Greenville base sites to instrument-rated BK 117 B2 helicopters. STAT MedEvac is the Region's only helicopter service with three single pilot instrument rated helicopters. Each of STAT MedEvac's helicopters are staffed 24-hours a day with an EMS pilot and a two-person medical crew including a nurse, paramedic or physician.

As a consortium, the Center for Emergency Medicine is a unique model of success -- an advanced system of emergency transport, clinical care, education and research governed by a group of tertiary care and community hospitals and a leading university in concert with a major metropolitan municipality. The Center has become the world's leading institute for the advancement of emergency medicine research and education, and most importantly, patient care.