HOPE FOR PREHOSPITAL RESEARCH?

Consent for research in the prehospital and early in-hospital settings has proved a tricky obstacle for many teams attempting to investigate emergency conditions. An amendment to the Medicines Regulations 2004 has just been published (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/), which aligns them to the Mental Capacity Act 2005. It allows the research ethics committee the ability to exercise more flexibility. Whether this will encourage or thwart research in a difficult setting remains to be seen.

STOPPING PREHOSPITAL RESUSCITATION

The transfer to hospital of arrested patients with little or no chance of successful resuscitation has risk and cost implications to health care services and providers. In an effort to develop a protocol for terminating out of hospital resuscitations conducted by Emergency Medical Technicians (practising basic life support and using automatic external defibrillators), Canadian researchers have prospectively validated their “Rule for Termination of Resuscitation”’ (

) . The “Rule” proposed that resuscitation could be stopped after initial resuscitative efforts (2–3 cycles), if the arrest was unwitnessed by Emergency Service Personnel, there was no return of …