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A blue six-barred star with a serpent-and-staff at its centre, marking emergency medical services.
Also known as: EMS star, Ambulance star, Paramedic symbol
A blue six-pointed star with the Rod of Asclepius at its centre marks emergency medical services, ambulances and paramedics. Its six bars are conventionally read as the six stages of emergency care, from detection through to transfer to definitive care.
Identifies emergency medical services: ambulances, paramedics, and the equipment and personnel of pre-hospital care.
Contexts: Medicine
Carries the Rod of Asclepius at its centre — the single-serpent staff, not the caduceus — which is the medically correct device.
Contexts: Medicine
Has its six bars conventionally read as the six functions of emergency care: detection, reporting, response, on-scene care, care in transit, and transfer to definitive care.
Contexts: Medicine
Was adopted in the United States in the 1970s, after the American Red Cross objected to ambulance services using a red cross, which is a protected emblem under the Geneva Conventions.
1977 onward · Contexts: Medicine
Has been subject to trademark control by a United States federal agency, and its status has changed over time; use on commercial products is not unrestricted everywhere.
Symbolwise has not verified the current registration status in any jurisdiction and makes no claim about it. Anyone intending to use the mark commercially should check directly.
Contexts: Medicine
Has six bars for six functions of the emergency medical response, conventionally given as detection, reporting, response, on-scene care, care in transit and transfer to definitive care. The number is not decorative and the reading is part of the design's own documentation.
United States · 1977 onward · Contexts: Medicine
Is registered as a safety sign for a defibrillator's location in the ISO system when combined with the appropriate pictogram, and is separately used by ambulance services across Europe, Asia and the Americas — its spread beyond its American origin being almost entirely voluntary adoption.
Contexts: Medicine, Public information
Related forms that are not treated as separate canonical symbols — see our variant rules.
Blue on white
The standard rendering: a blue six-barred cross on white, with the Rod of Asclepius at its centre.
Outlined form
The same star drawn as an outline for use on vehicle liveries where a solid block would dominate the panel.
Six blue bars radiating from a common centre at even angles, each with a squared-off end, with a staff and a single coiled serpent drawn upright in the middle.
The Rod of Asclepius forms the central device of the star.
Both belong to the group of staff-and-serpent devices used to mark medicine.