Today, the American Red Cross has the largest training
network in the country, training over 5 million people
annually. Their history in providing relief to those in
crisis and preparing individuals to respond in
emergencies has positioned them to be involved with
resuscitation councils from around the world that
review the science and literature that guides
international treatment recommendations.
The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation
known as ILCOR, reviews the evidence and develops a
consensus on science with treatment recommendations
known as the COSTR. The COSTR is then used by
national educational organizations around the world as
the scientific basis for the courses they develop.
HealthStream recently spoke with Jonathan Epstein,
Senior Director of Science, Industry, and Government
Relationships for the Training Services division of the
American Red Cross, about the organization’s history in
resuscitation and their current involvement in the
creation of national and international resuscitation
guidelines and recommendations for training programs.
What is ILCOR?
The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation
(ILCOR) was formed in 1992 as a not-for-profit
organization to develop and disseminate international
consensus statements or guidelines for resuscitation.
ILCOR has seven-member organizations that lead a
process to review and grade scientific data on
resuscitation, first aid, and treatment that has been
published throughout the world. The seven-member
organizations represent distinct geographies where
differences exist in economic conditions, practice
patterns, availability of medical equipment and drugs,
and ease of training.
Additionally, ILCOR has six task forces comprised of
representatives from resuscitation organizations
worldwide that identify the resuscitation questions that
need to be addressed. The six task forces cover
Advanced Life Support (ALS), Basic Life Support (BLS),
Pediatric Life Support (PLS), Neonatal Life Support
(NLS), Education, Implementation and Teams (EIT), and
First Aid (FA).
Each task force reviews relevant data from thousands of
published articles, grades and ranks the articles based on
their quality, and determines whether the new evidence
is supportive, neutral, or opposing to existing evidence.
The best new evidence is then reviewed to existing
standards, and ILCOR consensus statements are made
to influence improvement of the current standards.
The member organizations take the final ILCOR
recommendations and tweak them as appropriate for
their local healthcare professionals and healthcare
systems in their respective countries.
The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation
has initiated a continuous review of new, peer-
reviewed, published cardiopulmonary resuscitation
science and has begun producing annual summaries of
consensus science and treatment recommendations.
Working with ILCOR to Develop Guidelines
“The American Red Cross is aligned with ILCOR and
committed to working within the ILCOR process,”
Epstein emphasizes. “We have been very involved in
the development of the consensus in treatment
recommendations, and the international guidelines
around resuscitation are also written with the direct
involvement of the American Red Cross.”
Epstein serves as a subject matter expert within the
American Red Cross’s product development team and is
a liaison to industry and government partners related to
emergency response, resuscitation, and trauma. Further,
he is the Chair of the Board of Directors at International
Trauma Life Support and serves on the First Aid
Taskforce and as a Domain Lead with ILCOR. As an
ILCOR Domain Lead for Emergency Care topics, Epstein
ensures that content experts developing new
resuscitation recommendations meet their process goals,
maintain their development schedules, remain focused
on the pertinent questions, and are guided by tactical
science-based questions.
Several members of the American Red Cross Scientific
Advisory Council serve on ILCOR task forces or as
content experts within the ILCOR process. One
Scientific Advisory Council member, Dr. Eunice “Nici”
Singletary, is the First Aid Task Force Chair, and serves
as a member of the Continuous Evidence Evaluation
(CEE) working group. The CEE builds the methodology
of how questions will be answered, and the valid
scientific processes. It also reviews and evaluates the
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