Improving survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest across communities
RACE-CARS DCC 2/2
This project tries community and emergency-response changes to help people who have a cardiac arrest outside the hospital survive with good brain function.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Duke University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Durham, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11162329 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
From a patient's view, this project works with counties, first responders, hospitals, and community volunteers to roll out things like bystander CPR training, faster defibrillation, and coordinated emergency care. Fifty counties in North Carolina are grouped and randomly assigned to either receive these tailored community and EMS interventions or continue usual care over several years. The effort is run as a large, pragmatic trial so that lessons apply to real-world communities rather than just a clinic setting. A central data and coordinating center at Duke organizes the work, gathers outcomes, and helps hospitals and EMS teams follow the same plan.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: People who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in one of the participating North Carolina counties during the trial period would be the ones affected and included in results.
Not a fit: People who have a cardiac arrest outside the participating counties or whose arrest is immediately non-survivable are unlikely to benefit directly from this project.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the project could raise survival rates and the chance of leaving the hospital with good brain function after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
How similar studies have performed: Smaller regional efforts in North Carolina previously improved bystander CPR and early defibrillation and were linked to higher survival, but this larger, randomized county-level trial aims to test those approaches more rigorously.
Where this research is happening
Durham, United States
- Duke University — Durham, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Al-Khalidi, Hussein — Duke University
- Study coordinator: Al-Khalidi, Hussein
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.