A young mother is unconscious and bleeding from internal injuries caused by
a highway accident. A soldier is severely injured in a roadside explosion. A
50-year-old man suffers a cardiac arrest as he gets ready for work. For the ?real? counterparts
of these made-up case histories, the chance of survival from life-threatening
injury and cardiac arrest is dismally low. Many more could survive if only they
could be sustained long enough to reach a hospital alive. However, most cardiac
arrest victims die before they reach the hospital, and traumatic injury is a
top killer in North America. With the launch of a massive research program funded
by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal and Canadian agencies,
scientists hope to learn the best ways to improve survival chances from cardiac
arrest and severe trauma.
The ?Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium? (ROC) will conduct collaborative clinical
trials of promising new treatments for cardiac arrest (the stopping of the heartbeat)
and severe traumatic injury. Along with Emergency Medical Services (EMS) agencies,
ROC will involve public safety agencies, regional hospitals, community healthcare
institutions and medical centers in 11 regions in the United States and Canada
and as many as 15,000 patients over a 3-year period. Communities involved in
ROC will learn about the study in a comprehensive community education effort
to be conducted over the next 6 months to a year.
?Surviving traumatic injury and cardiac arrest is a serious public health issue.
Tens of thousands of Americans die each year from sudden cardiac arrest and trauma.
The good news is that there is a growing body of research — basic research
and small studies — that suggests a significant number of these people
can be saved,? said Elizabeth G. Nabel, M.D., director of the National Heart,
Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the NIH, the lead federal sponsor of the
research effort.
Other funding agencies include the U.S. Department of Defense, the NIH?s National
Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Institute of Circulatory
and Respiratory Health of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Defence
Research and Development Canada, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and
the American Heart Association. The initial funding commitment to the Consortium
is $50 million.
?This is the first time we have used large-scale clinical trials to improve
the treatment of patients with traumatic injury and cardiac arrest. Similar studies
in patients with heart attack and heart failure have answered questions about
the best treatments. As a result, we?ve seen greatly improved survival for these
disorders. That?s what we want to do with cardiac arrest and traumatic injury,? said
Myron Weisfeldt, M.D., professor and chair of internal medicine at Johns Hopkins
University and chair of the steering committee for the research effort.