Solving the problem of OHCA is difficult, but in broad terms it is not complicated. There is a high level of international consensus about the steps required. The first of these is to create a registry. To build a mechanism to measure current system performance, identify areas for improvement and track progress. This is not a straightforward process, as the system delivering care to victims of OHCA spans multiple agencies and so assembling meaningful data requires the synthesis of information from a range of ‘silos’.

This report, produced by the Resuscitation Research Group and published by the Scottish Government illustrates how the unique health data architecture in Scotland allows data from a range of discrete sources to be linked, enabling a powerful perspective on OHCA.

A copy of the report can be found here.