History   The Institute of Ambulance Officer (IAO) was established in 1961 by a group of some senior officers / executives of National Health Service (NHS) Ambulance Services in United Kingdom (UK) and was renamed as Ambulance Service Institute (ASI) in 1977. In UK, it has a National Council which is made up of elected representatives from English regions and the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland divisions. Each region and division has a programme of educational and social events, including seminars, conferences and local links with other organizations. In fact, ASI is the leading professional body for full time ambulance personnel. In Hong Kong, Institute of Ambulance Officer (Hong Kong Branch) was set up in 1973. In 1977, our nomenclature followed the change in UK Head Office and was renamed as Ambulance Service Institute (Hong Kong Branch). Since it has been set up in 1973, ASI (Hong Kong Branch) not only maintained a close link with Head Office, but also adopted a high degree of autonomy to run the educational programme for members.