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July 20, 2010
On July 20th, the Rescu summer students presented findings from their research projects at the annual Keenan Research Center Summer Student Program Poster Competition. Jonathan Hsu showed his work on re-classifying cardiac arrest locations in an attempt to place AEDs in high-risk location, while Shane Klein presented his findings from PREDICT that patients with metabolic syndrome X don’t receive any different pre-hospital treatment by paramedics, but have an increased incidence of STEMI. Monica Yu demonstrated a potentially cheaper and more cost effective way of teaching CPR in secondary schools across Toronto and Krista Wollny unveiled a new screening tool for hypertension and diabetes for use in the emergency department. Congratulations and a job well done to all.
Shane Klein, Jonathan Hsu, Monica Yu and Krista Wollny
June 23rd, 2010
CEPCP Hosts Annual Survivor Days
Each year the Central East Prehospital Care Program at Lakeridge Health hosts three annual Survivor Day tributes to Emergency Medical Services who were involved in the successful resuscitation of a victim of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. These events are an opportunity to promote public awareness and recognize the value of the Paramedics, Police, Firefighters, Public Access Defibrillation Responders, Communications staff and courageous bystanders who came to the aid of a person in need. Survivor day is also a time to honour survivors, and give them an opportunity to meet their rescuers. To find out more:
A chance to Say thank you by Keith Gilligan
Hearts go out to heroic emergency workers in Durham by Metroland Durham Region Media Group
June 21st, 2010
New Report Highlights Patient Safety Issues in Emergency Medical Services
The Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI), in partnership with the EMS Chiefs of Canada (EMSCC) and the Calgary EMS Foundation, has just released a new report exploring patient safety in EMS. The first of its kind in the world, Patient Safety in Emergency Medical Services: Advancing and Aligning the Culture of Patient Safety in EMS is the result of extensive research, which included bringing together Canadian and international leaders in EMS and experts in patient safety to discuss the successes, challenges and future directions of the patient safety movement for EMS in Canada.
May 28th, 2010
On May 25th and 26th, the NIH launched a site visit with the University of Toronto ROC site, Rescu. They brought with them representatives from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Department of National Defence. Throughout the visit the Site Review Team met with our Air, Basehospitals, EMS and Fire partners for the Toronto Regional RescuNet, ROC investigators, collaborators, prehospital and inhospital data guardians, volunteers, University of Toronto academic leads and the St. Michael’s Executive.
During a celebratory dinner and dance on May 25th, the US and Canadian Government partners awarded each of our participating basehospitals, EMS, Fire agencies and Ornge with a Proclamation from the NIH recognizing their invaluable contribution to the ROC trials.
A very special thank you to all of you who have made the ROC trials possible.
Dr. Philip Moran, Medical Director for Central East Prehospital Care Program accepting Proclamation from Mr. Pang Shek, Special Assistant, Office of the Director, Defence Research and Development Canada, Dr. George Sopko, Chair, NHLBI ROC Project Office and Dr. Laurie Morrison, Director of Rescu.
May 26th, 2010
The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star highlighted the importance of CPR education. To learn about more: by Liem Vu of The Globe and Mail Study finds shortcomings in CPR education, and by Katie Daubs of The Toronto Star, Only half of Toronto schools teach CPR.
May 17th, 2010
Rescu goes to Queen's Park!
As a step towards a Provincial government resolution (Bill 41, the Defibrillator Access Act, 2010, legislation would mandate Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) to be installed in all public spaces which could include schools, fitness facilities and hockey arenas), Ted McMeekin, Member of Parliament for Ancaster – Dundas - Flamborough Westdale gave a member's statement on Monday, May 17, 2010 in the Ontario Legislative Assembly at Queen's Park. The statement highlighted the contribution of the academic institutes and their investigators, the participating air, fire and EMS services and basehospitals, receiving hospitals and the citizens of the participating regions to improving the survival rate for both life threatening trauma and cardiac arrest through participation in the ROC consortium. The wisdom of the funding agencies was celebrated. Together our contribution to science through innovation and collaboration will become a part of legislative history!
May 7th, 2010
Newsflash!
New legislation that would mandate that Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) are installed in public spaces has passed a second reading at the Ontario Legislature. Read more about this exciting development here:
http://restart.heartandstroke.ca/defibrillator-access-act
http://www.heartandstroke.on.ca/site/c.pvI3IeNWJwE/b.5900769/
k.89E3/HeartStrokeTV.htm?src=home
http://toronto.ctv.ca/health/#TopVideoAn
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100506/
defibrillators-ontario-100506/20100506?hub=TopStoriesV2
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/764919
http://www.baytoday.ca/content/news/details.asp?c=36832
May 5th, 2010
Greeting from Blair Bigham, our Paramedic Research Investiagtor
Gutentag! Hello!
Exciting news for you all from Fulda, Germany! EMSResponder.com will be posting daily reports from their journalist in the field at Germany's RETTMobile, Me! This is Europe's largest ambulance safety conference and the EMS Safety Foundation has brought me here to help with knowledge translation. There will also be a webinar posted at the EMS Safety Foundation website that highlights a multidisciplinary panel of experts reacting to the differences between European and North American ambulance design.
4 daily reports will be posted at www.emsresponder.com Just click on the RETTMobile link under the Featured Articles title. The first one is already online! http://www.emsresponder.com/web/online/Safety/Live-From-RETTmobil/25$13137
Thank you for your continued support of making EMS safer.
Auf wiedersehen!
April 22nd, 2010
Last week's, SPARC OTN Videoconference was a huge success! We want to thank everyone who was able to attend. We had our biggest yet turnout with 16 hospitals on the call and 2 sites participating via webinar. We would also like to thank our presenters from North York General Hospital and London Health Sciences Centre for taking the time to offer us their insights on some very interesting topics.
The North York General team was represented by Wendy Cheung, Marina Bitton and JoAnne Correa with Dr. Kevin Sanders present for questions and answers. Their presentation was entitled "Cooling with Compassion" and focused on the human factors that affect the decision to cool a patient.
Dr. Sanders is a staff respirologist and intensivist at North York General Hospital and a Physician Champion for SPARC
Wendy Cheung is a Clinical Nurse Educator for the Emergency Department and a SPARC Champion for the ED at North York General
Marina Bitton is a Clinical Nurse Educator for the Critical Care Unit and SPARC Champion for CrCU
JoAnne Correa RN, Special Projects Coordinator, CrCU and SPARC In-Hospital Coordinator
Dr. Bryan Young then joined us to discuss "Neuroprognostication for Post-Cardiac Arrest Patients". Dr. Young is a Professor of Neurology and Medicine (Neurocritical Care), University of Western Ontario, London ON and also the Editor-in-Chief, for the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences and Associate Editor of Neurocritical Care, BMC Group and Frontiers Journal. Dr. Young is a world-expert in neuroprognostication after anoxic brain injury; his many other areas of expertise include: coma, prognosis, metabolic encephalopathies, sepsis-associated encephalopathy, EEG and evoked potential monitoring in ICU, non convulsive seizures in comatose ICU patients, brain death.
February 16th, 2010
On January 6th 2010, Blair Bigham, Paramedicine Investigator for Rescu attended Ambulance Safety Conference hosted by the National Association of EMS Physician (NAEMSP). Here is an excerpt from his article "Top 5 Things Learned from Ambulance Safety Conference".
1) Researchers do not really understand much about ambulance safety; little data is available to guide interventions that make EMS safer for providers, patients and the public. Adverse event databases are desperately needed to shed light on the problems that are faced daily.
2) Adverse events, like vehicle crashes and medication mistakes, occur because a myriad of contributors align at once. These contributors can relate to physical design, the environment, policy and processes, human factors, cultural norms and individual behaviors. This is also true for workplace injuries caused by poor ergonomic design.
3) A learning culture that embraces safety is key to moving the ambulance safety agenda forward: as EMS professionals, it is incumbent on us all to report adverse events. As administrators, regulators and medical directors, it is vitally important to support and praise providers who self-report adverse events and to discourage blame-and-shame cultures.
4) Ambulances in North America are designed poorly compared to those of Europe and elsewhere. Purpose-built vehicles that are designed for the job providers do each and every day are needed in today’s vehicle market, and EMS agencies should seek out well-designed vehicles when making purchase decisions.
5) Improving ambulance safety will require the collaboration of a large and mixed group of professionals, including EMS providers, EMS administrators, EMS physicians, automotive engineers, federal and state regulators, and EMS safety researchers.
January 20th, 2010
On January 14th, 2010 the SPARC Network held its third OTN Videoconference for Wedges 1, 2 and 3. Topics of presentation included a unique case study exemplifying the benefits of cooling as well as the importance of cooling in PCI. Site audiences then took part in a discussion on strategies to improve implementation of Therapeutic Hypothermia.
We'd like to thank everyone who was able to attend and look forward to joining you in the next SPARC OTN Videoconference!
December 21st, 2009
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone from 193 Yonge Street for their generous contributions to the Toy and Food Drive for the Scott Mission. There was a steady flow of new toys and non-perishable food coming in every day for the past week. Thanks to your donations, many children and teenagers in Toronto will be getting a wonderful surprise this holiday season.
Thank you and Season's Greetings from everyone at Rescu.
 
November 17th, 2009
To celebrate and ensure all of us can help each other, Rescu with assistance from Heart and Stroke Canada is offering to train all investigators and staff at the Yonge campus how to do CPR and how to operate an AED. We are inviting everyone to join us for a lunch time training session lasting 45 minutes in November on either the 17th, 25th or 26th in the 8th floor boardroom. ….anyone can learn CPR.
  
Click here to find out more about CPR Anytime Workshop
November 6th, 2009
ROC PRIMED Complete!
Click here to see the
NHLBI press release for ROC PRIMED
ROC Cardiac Arrest Research Trials – Analyze Early/Analyze Late and ITD
October 14th, 2009
On October 14th, 2009, Dr. Rick Verbeek, Dr. Sheldon Cheskes and Dr. Steven Brooks presented “Between a ROC and a Hard Place: Resuscitation Science at the University of Toronto” as part of the University of Toronto - Division of Cardiology, University Rounds chaired by Dr. Paul Dorian. Learning Objectives were:
- to understand the functioning, clinical, and research activities of the RESCU Network
- to be aware of the new developments in basic resuscitation
- to understand advances in post resuscitation care and their impact on outcomes
Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium Overview-Ganging up on sudden death - Dr. Rick Verbeek
CPR Process - A new measure of CPR quality during cardiac resuscitation - Dr. Sheldon Cheskes
Life After Death - Optimizing care for the post cardiac arrest patient – Dr. Steve Brooks
September 16th, 2009
Presented by videoconference from St. Michael's Hospital to Baycrest, Mount Sinai, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto General, Toronto Western, Trillium and Women’s College Hospital as part of “City Wide Medical Grand Rounds"
ROC Solid – New approaches to resuscitating victims of sudden cardiac arrest – by Dr. Laurie Morrison focuses on the importance of real-time feedback on the quality of CPR – the confounder of outcome in cardiac arrest, and recognize the unrealized potential of improved post-arrest care – pushing survival rates up.
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