The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation is dedicated to bringing you the latest news and developments in sudden cardiac arrest prevention and treatment.
Pens Charity ASSIST Raffle a Great Success
PITTSBURGH--More than 40 volunteers, including college students, helped raise funds for the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation earlier this week through the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation Charity ASSIST Raffle. The Pens Foundation established the Raffle to help Pittsburgh-based nonprofit organizations pursue their respective missions. A different… Read More
CMS Coverage Reaffirmed for Wearable Defibrillators
CHELMSFORD, MASS.–The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Durable Medical Equipment Medical Administrative Contractors (DME MACs) reaffirmed the current coverage policy across all indications for wearable defibrillators. CMS coverage for wearable defibrillators was established in 2005. In August, 2011, the DME MACs considered changes… Read More
ADHD Does Not Increase Risk of Sudden Cardiac Arrest
Researchers, funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Agency for Health Research Quality, recently studied the cardiovascular risk of ADHD medications in adults. The study found little evidence that the medications increased the risk of heart events, such as heart attack, sudden cardiac death, and stroke. The concerns stem from the… Read More
Penn Announces AED Registry Project in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA-- A group of Penn Medicine researchers is set to save lives with cell phone cameras -- and they're challenging the public to help. The MyHeartMap Challenge, a month-long contest slated to take place beginning in mid January, will send thousands of Philadelphians to the streets and to social media sites to locate as many automated… Read More
Is Long Distance Running Bad for the Heart?
By Jack Kelly Two men -- a 21-year-old student and a 40-year-old experienced triathlete -- died, apparently of cardiac arrest, while running the Philadelphia Marathon and Half Marathon Nov. 20. That same day in Pittsburgh, KDKA News anchor Susan Koeppen collapsed while jogging with friends in Shadyside. Ms. Koeppen, who was training for a half… Read More
New Guidelines for Preventing Sudden Death in Athletes Announced
Members of 65 sports and health organizations met Tuesday in Washington, D.C., at the third annual Youth Sports Safety Summit, to review a new position statement issued by the National Athletic Trainers' Association titled "Preventing Sudden Death in Sports." To be published in the February 2012 issue of the Journal of Athletic Training, the… Read More
Global AED Scavenger Hunt Launched at mHealth Summit
A global iRescU Location Challenge was launched this week at the mHealth Technology conference in Washington, D.C., and continues through December 19. The iRescU AED Location Challenge is an innovative project designed to build public automated external defibrillator (AED) public access databases. The individual reporting the greatest number of… Read More
Survivor and Rescuer Reunite One Year Later
By RIck Wills PITTSBURGH--Six days before last Christmas, Jay Gebhardt collapsed into a store shelf at a Downtown 7-Eleven store, then spent 10 days in an induced coma in UPMC Mercy. On Saturday — almost a year later — Gebhardt, his family and four Pittsburgh paramedics met under better circumstances, next to a giant Christmas tree in a Downtown… Read More
AHA Reaffirms Need for AEDs in Hospitals
DALLAS–The American Heart Association (AHA) takes issue with the article originally appearing on Nov. 14 as “Bad Shock…” by Lilly Fowler. The article raised questions about how the AHA developed its guidelines for the use of AEDs in hospitals. The writing group for this recommendation followed AHA policy requiring a clear majority of authors to… Read More