AWARE Study Update April 2011

We are currently in the process of recruiting a full-time research coordinator to assist with our efforts in the UK. As many of you may know, the study has been ongoing for approximately 4 years and we now have 1000 patients who we believe have had cardiac arrests and have been discharged home from the various participating hospitals.  It will be difficult, of course, to identify and track down every single person; however, with the help of our databases, we are looking to conduct final interviews with this group of patients to determine their cognitive and mental experiences from the period of cardiac arrest. Once these interviews have been completed, we will be looking to release our first set of data.

At the same time as working through and gathering this data, we continue to expand our efforts and collaborations. To date, we continue with our collaborators in the United States and have also set up relationships with Brazil as well as speaking with other countries, such as India.  We will bring you updates about the expansion of the project in the coming months.
 
The research into the cognitive and mental processes that occur during cardiac arrest is very important in its own right because the information we collect is also a part of an on-going program to try improving the quality of life outcomes for patients who have gone through cardiac arrests. The research could lead to improving patient survival as well as rates of brain recovery. Many of our readers have shown specific interest in understanding the cognitive and mental outcomes after cardiac arrest and we would like to highlight the fact that our research has been undertaken as an overall project that includes the physiological and cognitive effects that take place in people after they have had a cardiac arrest, or in other words, have reached the point of clinical death. The field of resuscitation is a growing area and its findings will enable physicians and nurses across the world to improve the quality of life for survivors.
 
We are sure that many of you will realize that this is a difficult and challenging area for research, and that it is not possible to release data in a piecemeal fashion; nevertheless, we hope to be able to bring you further updates and provide you with a summary of our targets and a likely release date for the results.