Cardiac Arrest outside the hospital is often with a deadly outcome.  Without medical attention, the person will die within a few minutes. People are less likely to die if they have early cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation, however this often involves professional caretaking. Studies show that the mortality rate is 100% within 10-15 minutes.

The purpose of the project is to establish a Centre for Cardiac Arrest in Oresundsregionen as a collaborative effort to increase knowledge, developments in assessment, treatment and outcome in cardiac arrest victims. The Centre is initiated by Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet and Skåne University Hospital, already in collaboration in research activities regarding in-hospital treatment of cardiac arrest victims. It is evident that outcome in cardiac arrest can be optimized only if research and development is targeting all links in the ‘chain of survival’: prevention, pre-hospital logistics and treatment, in-hospital treatment and effective rehabilitation.

The Region of Oresund is an ideal geographic area for optimizing results and the great similarities of Sweden and Denmark, including in their inhabitants, provides an excellent basis for increasing the geographical area covered by the current research activities, which will be of tremendous value in improving outcome in the rare but devastating disease, as well as providing the basis for a effective organization behind research in cardiac arrest.

With the support of Interreg, the Centre should be established by 2014. With an increasing focus on communication of results outside the scientific community, the Region will be known as one of the world’s leading centers in Cardiac Arrest research and will likely attract commercial as well as non-profit research collaborations in the future.

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