02 Mar 2011
A/Prof Marcus Ong, Senior Consultant of Department of Emergency Medicine was awarded the Clinician Scientist Award (CSA) to conduct research on factors affecting survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
A/Prof Marcus Ong
Senior Consultant
Department of Emergency Medicine, Singapore General Hospital
Area of Research:
Determining The Relative Importance of Modifiable Factors Affecting Survival From Out-Of-Hosptial Cardiac Arrest In Singapore And The Cost-Effectiveness Of Strategies To Improve Outcomes
Project Abstract:
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a global health concern. Cardiac arrest occurs when a person’s heart suddenly stops beating effectively, usually because of an abnormal heart rhythm, resulting in collapse. If left untreated, the chances of survival decrease by 10% with every minute that passes. Survival rates in Singapore are low (2%) compared to the United States or Europe (up to 40%). Approximately 1,500 deaths occur in Singapore each year due to OHCA.
The Pan-Asian Resuscitation Outcomes Study (PAROS) is a multi-national collaboration with countries in the Asia-Pacific (Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Australia and the United Arab Emirates); data pertaining to OHCA are collected from all countries involved. This is the first large OHCA study in Asia. The researchers have pre-identified five strategies that can potentially improve survival from OHCA. These strategies include: increasing rate of cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and delivery of life saving electric shocks (defibrillation) by the public, reducing
ambulance response time to calls, training of ambulance crews in advanced life support, and improved post cardiac arrest intensive care. However, all these strategies involve large investment of resources. Therefore, it is important to determine the most costeffective strategy(ies) that can give maximum survival benefits to allow for prioritization and selection of strategy(ies) for implementation.
An online secure platform has been created for the study in collaboration with the Singapore Clinical Research Institute. This platform collates data of all cardiac arrests in Singapore, and of all countries involved in the study. This study is also done in collaboration with the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA. To date, >9,000 entries have been created in the study’s database. Based on the data collected, collaborators of the studies will launch related studies on paediatric OHCA (cardiac arrest in children), primary ventricular fibrillation (a severely abnormal heart rhythm that can be life-threatening) and are planning subsequent studies to improve cardiac arrest outcomes using advanced therapies like hypothermia post cardiac arrest (cooling the body for brain protection) and public access defibrillation (lay person defibrillation).
It is hoped that through this study we will be able to identify and implement the best and most cost-effective strategies for increasing OHCA survival rates in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific.
About the Clinician Scientist Award
CSA awardees spend at least 70% of their time doing research relevant to their areas of specialty and the remaining to see patients. This enables them to stay in touch with medicine and at the same time, explore and expand new research grounds by bringing insights from their clinical work to the laboratories. The selection of the CSA awardees is based on scientific merits of their research proposals and their track records. There are two calls each year for the CSA.
The award has two categories: Senior Investigator (SI) and Investigator (Inv). The former caters to senior doctors who are already actively involved in highly productive research and hold at least one peer-reviewed active research grant. They will be funded for a period of five years under the scheme. The Inv category caters to younger doctors with the potential of becoming independent investigators and who wish to develop a career in translational and clinical research.
The CSA is funded by the National Research Foundation and administered by the National Medical Research Council under the Ministry of Health. A total of 25 CSAs have been given out to date.
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