For Investigators

Overall Aim

The overall aim of the Canadian Sudden Cardiac Arrest Network (C-SCAN) is to measure the disease burden of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and enable the prediction and prevention of these events by identifying key symptoms, risk factors, and triggers.

Data Sources

Data will be obtained from diverse sources. Data from emergency medical services (EMS) ambulance call reports will be combined with data from administrative databases such as the National Ambulatory Care Reporting System Metadata (NACRS) and the Discharge Abstract Database Metadata (DAD), as well as data from coroners’ reports, and survivor interviews.

Data Extraction and Analysis

Each of the data sources will be reviewed to extract data pertinent to determining the underlying etiology of the SCA event.

• The EMS data will be collected from patients who are between the ages of 1-85 years old, attended by EMS, for a SCA of presumed cardiac etiology (not due to anaphylaxis, overdose, trauma, suicide etc).
• Specific data from the DAD and NACR database will be collected including the primary patient service, diagnosis codes, intervention codes, presenting complaint list, consult request service, and emergency department discharge diagnosis.
• Reports from the coroner including the autopsy, toxicology and molecular autopsy will also be reviewed to accurately determine cause of death.
• Data will also be collected from selected survivors, who will be interviewed using a standardized semi-structured questionnaire. This questionnaire gathers important details on the circumstances of each SCA event as well as any warning symptoms that may have preceded the event.
• Together these data will provide insight into the scope of SCA across the nation and allow for the design of interventions that can assist with the prevention and treatment of SCA.