As the action around a patient with failing vital functions is getting more multidisciplinary, there seems to be a developing consensus that intensive care medicine is not going to be regarded as a speciality in its own right. Before becoming board certified in intensive care medicine a board certification in a primary speciality will be required. Anaesthesiological expertise and skills will continue to be important, even in intensive care medicine of the future. It is the level of broad medical knowledge, clinical capability and scientific competence that will decide the future leadership of this multidiscipline.