
Rethinking the System of Survival for Sudden Cardiac Arrest
History of the Task Force and Project
In 2007, Dr. Larry Starr, who has been involved in cardiac and emergency care research for more than 25 years, posed this question: "Why after 40 years of enormous energy and resources is the Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) survival rate low, very low — too low? Are we doing the 'right' things?" When colleagues Dr. Allan Braslow and Frank Poliafico visited him as part of a meeting with Dr. Lance Becker who had recently come to Penn to direct the Penn Center for Resuscitation Science, he offered a new framework to think about the SCA survival problem. READ MORE...
Special Task Force
- Benjamin Abella
- Jean (Will) Bail
- Matt Dane Baker
- Lance Becker
- Danny Benau
- Nicholas Bircher
- Allan Braslow
- Robert T. Brennan
- Kathleen G. Burke
- Ted Crites
- Mike Fink
- Keith Griffiths
- Dave Gaieski
- Ward M. Hamilton
- Guy Knickerbocker
- Mary E. Mancini
- Raina Merchant
- E. E. (Chip) Miller
- Vinay M. Nadkarni
- Mary Newman
- Frank Poliafico
- John Pourdehnad
- Arthur Romano
- Donna Siegfried
- Jasmeet Soar
- Larry M. Starr
- Charlee Tufts
- Rebecca Wear Robinson
- Lynne White
Resources
- University of Pennsylvania Ackoff Systems Thinking Library
- CLASSIC: Ackoff Bell Laboratories Lecture
- CLASSIC: The Art and Science of Mess Management (PDF)
- 1993: Pitfalls of Strategic Planning (PDF)
- 2002: Wicked Problems in Project Definition (PDF)
- 2006: Idealized Design: How Bell Labs Imagined -- and Created -- the Telephone System of the Future (PDF)
- 2006: Reframing Survival: It's about Systems not a Chain
- 2007: A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making (PDF)
- 2007: Introducing System Dynamics Modeling to Health Care in Alberta (PDF)
- 2007: Using a Design Approach to Assist Large-Scale Organizational Change: "10 High Impact Changes” to Improve the National Health Service in England (PDF)
- 2008: Starr and Braslow Op-Ed article
- 2009: Peter Pronovost: Champion of checklists in critical care (PDF)
- 2009: RESPONSE: The art of medicine: Reality check for checklists (PDF)
- 2009: Starr and Braslow Position Paper
- 2010: The Task Force meeting featuring Dr. Bob Berg’s discussion of hands-only CPR Increasing Bystander CPR: Hands-only CPR
- 2011: JEMS paper: New Thinking About SCA Survival
- 2011: Thinking in Systems: Design and Otherwise Part 1 and Part 2
- 2011: Systems and Design Thinking: Conceptual Framework for their Integration
- 2011: Bad Shock: AEDs May Saver Fewer Lives in Hospitals
- 2011: RESPONSE to Bad Shock: From Starr, Braslow, Bircher & Field (PDF)
- 2011: RESPONSE to Bad Shock: From American Heart Association
- 2011: REPORT on Bad Shock from SCA Foundation
AED Crowdsourcing, Social Media, Mobile Game Project
The Penn MyHeartMap Team, a collaboration of scientists, researchers, educators and students, is initiating the MyHeartMap Challenge project to locate installed AEDs in Philadelphia. For information visit the project website.
CPR Design Project
Join us! Design the ideal adult CPR/AED course experience
Imagine that you have the task of designing a completely new adult workplace CPR program, something that would be used by everyone at every workplace and in the general community. What would you design if given this opportunity? What characteristics would your ideal course have?
.
Task Force Member Affiliations
- American Heart Association: Nadkarni
- American Medical Response: White
- American Red Cross
- Cardiac Science Corporation: Miller
- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: Nadkarni
- Emergency Training Excellence Inc.: Poliafico
- Goodman Research Group: Brennan and Braslow
- Greenwich Emergency Medical Service, Inc: Romano, Tufts
- Jabari of the water: Robinson
- National Safety Council: Siegfried
- North Bristol NHS Trust: Soar
- Penn Ackoff Collaboratory for Advancement of the Systems Approach: Pourdehnad
- Penn Emergency Medicine: Gaieski
- Penn Center for Resuscitation Science: Abella, Becker, Merchant, Nadkarni
- Public Division of Public Safety | Penn Police Department: Fink
- Penn Organizational Dynamics: Braslow, Pourdehnad, Starr
- Penn School of Nursing: Burke
- Philadelphia University Disaster Medicine and Management Program: Bail, Baker
- Red Flash Strategic Marketing for Public Safety: Griffiths
- Society for Simulation in Healthcare: Mancini
- Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation: Newman
- University of Pittsburgh Department of Critical Care Medicine: Bircher
- University of the Sciences in Philadelphia Biomedical Writing Program: Benau
- University of Texas College of Nursing: Mancini
- ZOLL Medical Corporation: Hamiltion



