ICARE

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Improving Cardiac Arrest Recognition and Effectiveness (ICARE)

• IRAS ID

  170375

• Contact name

  Caroline Watkins

• Contact email

  clwatkins@uclan.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Clinical Lancashire

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 5 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  WHY THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS IMPORTANT
  Out of hospital cardiac arrest is an extreme medical emergency, affecting 60,000 people in the UK each year. Early effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and rapid paramedic attendance are essential to survival. The speed and accuracy of recognition of out of hospital cardiac arrest by 999 call handlers is fundamental, since every second of delay reduces the chance of long-term survival.

  RESEARCH PLAN
  A multi-phase programme of work using mixed methods. The same setting will be used for all phases, namely, two ambulance trusts (North West Ambulance Service and North East Ambulance Service) and two hospital trusts (Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and Northumbria Acute Trust) in England. The programme will use existing data and will involve listening to past 999 telephone calls relating to symptoms associated with cardiac arrest. Researchers will try to find key words and phrases that may help the ambulance call handler recognise the presence or risk of cardiac arrest. If the team successfully finds words that are predictive of cardiac arrest then recommendations may be made for future call handler training.

  ANTICIPATED OUTPUTS AND IMPACT
  The results of the project will be shared with both the academic world, in the form of publications and conference presentations, and with the clinical community, through newsletters, clinical forums and research and development events. Patients and the public will be made aware of the results through newsletters and presentations at Patient and Public Involvement forums. Findings could lead to better recognition of patients in, and at risk of cardiac arrest, by 999 call handlers. This may impact on out of hospital cardiac arrest survival. Better recognition of cardiac arrest could also improve service provision and resource use by reducing the number of inappropriate diversions of ambulances, and therefore delayed arrival at other urgent incidents.

• REC name

  North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  15/NW/0544

• Date of REC Opinion

  7 Jul 2015

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion