The Minneapolis-based Medtronic Foundation has announced grants totaling $3.75 million over five years to the Illinois HeartRescue Collaborative at the University of Illinois and American Medical Response to help improve sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) survival rates in Illinois and select communities served by AMR.

Both partners are working with leading resuscitation experts at Duke University and the universities of Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Washington to develop and expand SCA response systems. The grant funding will be used to improve survival rates by 50 percent within five years by implementing measurable, evidence-based best practices among citizen bystanders, pre-hospital responders such as police, fire, and EMS, and in hospitals. The grant to AMR was specifically made to its nonprofit education foundation to implement local community initiatives known to improve sudden cardiac arrest survival.

The Illinois HeartRescue Collaborative, a partnership between the University of Illinois Hospital and Health System, Chicago Fire Department, Chicago EMS System, and the Illinois Department of Public Health, will work to develop a statewide network for cardiac arrest reporting and quality improvement. As part of the effort, the volunteer network of hospitals, EMS, and community leaders will target rural and urban Latino and African American communities and promote cultural competency strategies that encourage, expand, and support community-initiated grassroots efforts aimed at improving SCA survival rates.

AMR will provide in-kind support in the form of oversight, manpower, and resources to ensure that those community initiatives are supported, executed, and sustained.

"The disparities in SCA survival rates are both a major challenge and an opportunity for the people of Illinois," said the University of Illinois' Terry VandenHoek, who will serve as project lead for the state. "We are poised to change those rates. We are looking forward to the impact we can make through our partnerships and with the timely support from the HeartRescue Project."