WASHINGTON (Dec 19, 2016) - A new report presents 10 quality and performance measures that are intended to help stakeholders—including health systems, legislative bodies, and nongovernmental organizations, as well as healthcare practitioners, patients, families and communities—in the effort to prevent sudden cardiac death. The joint report from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association is published online today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Sudden cardiac death is an unexpected death due to the sudden cessation of cardiac activity, which is also known as sudden cardiac arrest. The two phrases are often used interchangeably; however, sudden cardiac death should only be used to describe fatal events.

"This is the first comprehensive measure set in the area of sudden cardiac death prevention," said Sana Al-Khatib, MD, FACC, co-chair of the writing committee and professor of medicine at Duke University. "Our vision is that these measures will be developed, tested, and implemented in clinical practice and that implementation will improve patient care and outcomes."

In the United States, approximately 356,500 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur each year. Many of the sudden deaths occurring in the United States may be prevented by implementing evidence-based and guideline-endorsed recommendations for primary or secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death. However, sudden cardiac death can occur in people who do not appear to be at risk for this outcome and accurate risk stratification is not achievable in most people.

"While some people—such as patients with heart failure—are known to be at risk of sudden cardiac death, others are not. We need initiatives to improve the quality of care for those with a known risk, but also for the victims of sudden cardiac arrest," Al-Khatib said.

Sudden cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Even when a patient survives, the condition may have a devastating impact on the patient's quality and length of life. This clinical outcome also imposes a heavy economic burden through healthcare costs.

Although guidelines exist for the prevention of sudden cardiac death, there has been an underutilization of public health initiatives, treatments and device therapies for at-risk patients. The writing committee attempted to identify performance measures that can assess the quality of care for the prevention of sudden cardiac death. Although sudden cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death can affect people of all ages and demographics, the performance measures focus on adults. No limitations or restrictions for other demographics, such as sex, race/ethnicity, or socioeconomic status, were applied.

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