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. 2018 Sep;5(3):165-176.
doi: 10.15441/ceem.17.259. Epub 2018 Sep 30.

Korean Cardiac Arrest Research Consortium (KoCARC): rationale, development, and implementation

Joo Yeong Kim  1 , Sung Oh Hwang  2 , Sang Do Shin  3 , Hyuk Jun Yang  4 , Sung Phil Chung  5 , Sung Woo Lee  6 , Kyung Jun Song  3 , Seung Sik Hwang  7 , Gyu Chong Cho  8 , Sung Woo Moon  1 , Kyuseok Kim  9 , Won Young Kim  10 , Seil Oh  11 , Young Ho Kwak  3 ; KoCARC
Affiliations

Korean Cardiac Arrest Research Consortium (KoCARC): rationale, development, and implementation

Joo Yeong Kim et al. Clin Exp Emerg Med. 2018 Sep.

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to describe the conceptualization, development, and implementation processes of the newly established Korean Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation Consortium (KoCARC) to improve out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) outcomes.

Methods: The KoCARC was established in 2014 by recruiting hospitals willing to participate voluntarily. To enhance professionalism in research, seven research committees, the Epidemiology and Preventive Research Committee, Community Resuscitation Research Committee, Emergency Medical System Resuscitation Research Committee, Hospital Resuscitation Research Committee, Hypothermia and Postresuscitation Care Research Committee, Cardiac Care Resuscitation Committee, and Pediatric Resuscitation Research Committee, were organized under a steering committee. The KoCARC registry was developed with variables incorporated in the currently existing regional OHCA registries and Utstein templates and were collected via a web-based electronic database system. The KoCARC study population comprises patients visiting the participating hospitals who had been treated by the emergency medical system for OHCA presumed to have a cardiac etiology.

Results: A total of 62 hospitals volunteered to participate in the KoCARC, which captures 33.0% of the study population in Korea. Web-based data collection started in October 2015, and to date (December 2016), there were 3,187 cases compiled in the registry collected from 32 hospitals.

Conclusion: The KoCARC is a self-funded, voluntary, hospital-based collaborative research network providing high level evidence in the field of OHCA and resuscitation. This paper will serve as a reference for subsequent KoCARC manuscripts and for data elements collected in the study.

Keywords: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation; Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest; Research.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Organization of Korean Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation Consortium.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Flow chart of study proposal to be accepted as an official Korean Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation Consortium (KoCARC) research agenda.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Data collection by month. OHCA, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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