Posted on 08/20/2014

A national initiative to improve survival from cardiac arrest

Mickey Eisenberg, MD, and Mary NewmanThe Institute of Medicine, a division of the National Academies of Sciences, has announced it will conduct a study on the current status of, and future opportunities to improve, cardiac arrest outcomes in the United States. The study will examine current statistics and variability regarding survival rates from cardiac arrest in the U.S. and will assess the state of scientific evidence on existing lifesaving therapies and public health strategies that could improve survival rates. In addition, the study will include a focus on promising areas of research and next steps to improve the quality of care for cardiac arrest.

The study will focus on the following topics:

  • Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs)
  • EMS and hospital resuscitation systems of care
  • National cardiac arrest statistics
  • The state of resuscitation research in the US
  • Next steps to significantly enhance survival rates from cardiac arrest.

The committee is chaired by Robert Graham, MD, of Washington University in St. Louis, and Mickey Eisenberg, MD, of the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. Members include Dianne Atkins, MD, Tom Aufderheide, MD, Lance Becker, MD, Bentley Bobrow, MD, Nisha Chandra-Strobos, MD, Marina Del Rios, MD, Al Hallstrom, PhD, Daniel Kramer, MD, Roger Lewis, MD, David Markenson, MD, Raina Merchant, MD, Robert Myerberg, MD, Brahmajee Nallamothu, MD, Robin Newhouse, MD, Ralph Sacco, MD, Arthur Sanders, MD, and Clyde Yancy, MD. (See roster here.) The study is being sponsored by the American Heart Association, the American Red Cross, and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

First Meeting

The IOM committee first met March 12 in Washington, DC. Representatives of the AHA (Brian Eigel), the ARC (Jennifer Deibert) and the NHLBI (David Lathrop) shared their perspectives on the intiative. Then government activities related to sudden cardiac arrest were addressed by Joseph P. Ornato, MD (Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium), Robin Boineau (NHLBI), Jeremy Brown (NIH Office of Emergency Care Research), and Bryan McNally, MD (Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival initiative). In discussing the public health burden of sudden cardiac arrest, Ornato noted that the loss of life to SCA is equivalent to three Boeing 747s crashing every single day and killing everyone onboard. "The public health burden of sudden cardiac arrest is enormous and urgently needs continued, focused basic science and translational clinical research," he said.

For details on the agenda, speakers, and to view presentations, click here.

 

Second Meeting

The second committee meeting was conducted June 16 in Seattle. Robert Neumar, MD, of the University of Michigan discussed the need to measure and report the burden of cardiac arrest, calling for a national surveillance program to monitor and report the incidence of cardiac arrest, processes of care, and patient-centered outcomes. He also called for funding that is proportionate with the burden of disease. "According to the CDC, the annual number of deaths due to cancer is 574,743, while the number of deaths due to out-of-hospital and in-hospital cardiac arrest is ~500,000," he said. "Yet the NIH investment in cancer research is $9,400 per patient death, while the NIH investment in cardiac arrest research is $50 per patient death."

Other presenters included Peter Kudenchuk, MD, University of Washington, Romer Geocadin, MD, Johns Hopkins University, Vinay Nakarni, MD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Comilla Sasson, MD, American Heart Association. In addition, Graham Nichol, MD, of the University of Washington, Ahamed Idris, MD, Dallas-Fort Worth Center for Resuscitation Research, and Bryan McNally, of Emory University, discussed EMS response to sudden cardiac emergencies, cardiac arrest data registries, challenges with data collection, research design, and model research systems.

Committee member Ben Bobrow, MD, moderated a panel on the public’s experience with cardiac arrest. Invited speakers included Sue Nixon, a sudden cardiac survivor; Michelle Wenhold, who lost her son Jonathan to cardiac arrest when he was nine, representing Parent Heart Watch and the Anthony Bates Foundation; Amer Aldeen of the Chicago Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation Education Service; and Mary Newman, MS, of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation.

For details on the agenda, speakers, and to view presentations, click here.

For information on the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation presentation on National Efforts to Raise Awareness About Sudden Cardiac Arrest, click here.

Third Meeting

The third meeting of the committee will be held on August 25-26 in Washington DC. The public session will be on August 25. Topics will include treatment of sudden cardiac arrest in hospitals, understanding known and emerging therapies, and enhancing the pathway from bench to bedside. The agenda is available here.

The committee is expected to issue a report in the spring of 2015.

SOURCE: Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation

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