The Dutch Society of Emergency Physicians (DSEP) was founded in 1999 and is considered one of the main starting points of emergency medicine in the Netherlands.

During the same period four teaching hospitals started the first emergency medicine training in the Netherlands to train physicians working in EDs and improve the quality of care. In the following years, more hospitals joined and in 2004, the Stichting Opleiding Spoedeisende Geneeskunde, a foundation too secure and standardise the emergency medicine training program, was founded. Since 2009, emergency medicine in the Netherlands has been recognised as an area of special interest by the Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG).

Over the last 15 years, emergency medicine in the Netherlands has developed into an independent area of expertise. DSEP acts as a representative of this area and unites all EPs and EM residents in the Netherlands and gives emergency medicine a public voice and it also monitors and improves the form and quality of training of EPs in the Netherlands.

As a society DSEP participates actively in international umbrella organisations, such as the European Society for Emergency Medicine and the International Federation for Emergency Medicine. Representatives from the society are also part of several national committees concerned with emergency medicine.

DSEP, apart from organising ICEM 2023, focuses on the quality of care provided, patient safety, cost reduction and accessibility to the health care as well as the development of an academic emergency medicine.