New publication: Telephone CPR Instructions in Emergency Dispatch Systems: Qualitative Survey of 911 Call Centers.

Congratulations to Dr. Christian Dameff, current PGY-2, on his recent publication, Telephone CPR Instructions in Emergency Dispatch Systems: Qualitative Survey of 911 Call Centers. Quoting the conclusion from the abstract, "This is the first large-scale, nationwide assessment of the practices of PSAPs in the United States regarding T-CPR for OHCA. These data showing that nearly half of the nation's PSAPs do not provide T-CPR for OHCA, and very few PSAPs provide compression-only instructions, suggest that there is significant potential to improve the implementation of this critical link in the chain of survival for OHCA." PubMed ID 26587099 (link)

Comments from Dr. Dameff: "CPR is the most important intervention to perform for cardiac arrest. High quality and timely CPR is not often done. Emergency operators can teach people calling 911 how to perform CPR on the fly. This is a really good thing. Our study shows that only 50% of dispatch centers do this. In conclusion we need to encourage and support dispatch centers to do this lifesaving intervention."