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20 NOVEMBER 2017 | EMSWORLD.com willingly shared and published this fact and admits existing approaches weren't work- ing—so he made changes. When Dunne and his colleagues mapped data on bystander CPR and identified areas in Detroit with a high incidence of SCA and low incidence of CPR, they knew exactly where to target their training. Now, with grants from FEMA and the American Heart Association, teams are going into the com - munity to teach hands-only CPR in addi- tion to installing smoke and carbon mon- oxide detectors. AmeriCorps volunteers in the Detroit area have distributed more than 500 CPR kits, and Dunne often joins these home visits. "It's one of the most fun things I get to do," he says. Harkins knows the value of measurement and improvement. As program manager for Minnesota's HeartRescue initiative, she appreciates EMS agencies with leaders like Dunne who don't let the stigma of reporting less-than-impressive data get in the way of what is important. "Once a HeartRescue Project member state begins engaging in data collection and making improvements, survival rates from SCA increase," says Harkins. "You don't know what you need to improve unless you measure it." Improving 9-1-1 dispatch and telephone CPR instructions. The SaveMIHeart lead- ership can proudly claim there are SCA survivors living happy and productive lives in Michigan because a 9-1-1 call-taker gave CPR instructions to a 9-1-1 caller. This suc- cess can be documented because Michigan, like all HeartRescue members, participates in the national Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) database; EMS agencies and hospitals that care for about 75% of Michigan's population report data to CARES. In her role as the state's CARES coordina- tor, Shields analyzes the incidence of tele- phone CPR (TCPR) for the state. In Detroit Dunne has focused specifically on upgrad - ing dispatcher training to achieve "hands- on-chest" within 30 seconds of a dispatcher recognizing cardiac arrest. Both Dunne and Shields praise Detroit's leadership, includ- ing the mayor, for engaging in the effort to improve survival rates and seeing the value of TCPR and further training. "The mayor's office and city council have paid attention to this issue and to our needs," Dunne says. "Call-takers are now asking more structured medical questions of 9-1-1 callers, and every one of our call- takers is trained in CPR instructions." Measuring and implementing high-per- formance CPR by EMS. The SaveMIHeart initiative has helped identify the challenges to improving SCA survival rates in the state, especially when it comes to training EMS providers. One of the tenets of the Heart- Rescue Project is that every community— rural areas and small towns, suburbs and urban centers—can implement the same best practices to improve survival. At the same time, many HeartRescue partners have also recognized that the process of achieving those practices may look different depending on a community's resources. SaveMIHeart leaders are focused The HeartRescue Project The HeartRescue Project (HeartRescueProject.com) launched in 2011 with support from Medtronic Philanthropy. It brought together leading experts who all shared the belief that sudden cardiac arrest is a treatable condition and pub- lic health issue. Together these leaders from six states, as well as the communi- ties served by American Medical Response (AMR), collaborated to share best practices and innovative approaches to achieving the project's goal of dramati- cally increasing cardiac arrest survivor rates over five years. With its recent expansion, the HeartRescue Project now includes both HeartRescue United States and HeartRescue International. With continued sup- port from Medtronic Philanthropy, HeartRescue International is bringing some of the lessons learned from five years of the HeartRescue Project in the U.S. and applying them to communities in China, India and Brazil. HeartRescue United States continues as a consortium of the original part- ners as well as several other states that have recently joined. These members have committed not only to collaborating but also to using the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES), a national database that allows them to measure and evaluate cardiac arrest processes and outcomes. Together these partners help support each other's efforts to integrate their communi- ties' response to cardiac arrest, coordinate education of both the public and medical professionals, and introduce and apply best practices. In addition, many HeartRescue partners coordinate and support survivor groups—visit LifeAfterSCA.org to find out more. HeartRescue United States partners include AMR and these member states: