Overview

This live educational event brings together EMS professionals, emergency medicine physicians, cardiologists, intensivists, and key stakeholders across the Cleveland region to advance the care of patients with refractory cardiac arrest. As resuscitation strategies continue to evolve, including the integration of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR), optimizing regional systems of care is critical to improving survival and neurologic outcomes.

Participants will explore current challenges and opportunities in early recognition, patient selection, activation pathways, and interfacility coordination. Through expert-led discussions and real-world case integration, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of how streamlined, multidisciplinary collaboration can reduce delays to definitive therapies and enhance outcomes for this high-risk population.

This interprofessional activity emphasizes practical strategies to align teams across the continuum of care—from prehospital response to advanced in-hospital therapies—while fostering shared accountability and communication. Attendees will leave with actionable insights to support the development and refinement of a cohesive, high-performing regional system of care for refractory cardiac arrest.

Learning Objectives

• Apply standardized regional protocols to identify appropriate patients with refractory cardiac arrest.
• Activate ECPR pathways in a timely manner.
• Coordinate interfacility transfer to optimize survival and neurologic outcomes.

Target Audience

Nurses, Physicians, EMS, Residents/Fellows