ÌÇÐÄvlog

In this issue of JAMA Cardiology, the article by Bobrow et al¹ addressing telephone cardiopulmonary resuscitation as a strategy to improve outcomes after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is of considerable importance to the cardiovascular community and has notable public health implications. The deployment of an evidence-based, guideline-driven² process improvement strategy targeting facilitated bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation led to considerable improvements in survival and functional status. The devastating consequences of cardiac arrest as highlighted in the recent Institute of Medicine report Strategies to Improve Cardiac Arrest Survival: A Time to Act³ demand that we pursue new initiatives to achieve meaningful improvements in resuscitation as an intervention for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Moreover, as nicely highlighted in the accompanying Invited Commentary by Niemann and Lewis,⁴ the situation is even direr in at-risk communities as the evidence of disparate outcomes after cardiac arrest as a function of race and ethnicity is disheartening. We call on the community to continue to pursue this line of research and to uniquely address interventions that may be effective in those at greatest risk.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: The author has completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest and none were reported.