International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR)

The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) was first formed in 1992 to provide a mechanism and platform for nations all around the world to compile, share and interpret data about CPR techniques and outcomes. With the information from sudden cardiac arrest events and other first aid emergencies accumulated and shared from many countries, First Aid and CPR training providers are able to make evidence based and scientifically sound decisions about what the guidelines should be, and how to educate the public in a manner that has the most positive outcomes possible.

Representative First Aid and CPR training agencies within the ILCOR organization include the American Heart Association (AHA/USA), the European Resuscitation Council (ERC/European Nations), the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC/Canada), the Australian and New Zealand Committee on Resuscitation (ANZOR), the Australian Resuscitation Council (Australia), the New Zealand Resuscitation Council (New Zealand), the Resuscitation Councils of Southern Africa (RCSA/South Africa), the Interamerican Heart Foundation (IAHF), and the Resuscitation Council of Asia (RCA).

The amount of data shared regarding cardiac/first aid events, bystander actions, professional/volunteer emergency responses, and in-hospital care referenced with the corresponding short-term and long-term patient outcomes provides more accurate insight than the relatively small amount of data normally available to a single nation could confer.

Consensus on Science and Treatment Recommendations (CoSTR)

As part of ILCOR's Continuous Evidence Evaluation (CEE) process, the Consensus on Science and Treatment Recommendations utilizes specialized task forces to review the most current First Aid and CPR data. Task Force focuses include Adult Life Support, Basic Life Support, Education Implementation and Teams, First Aid, Pediatric Life Support, and Neonatal Life Support.

These CoSTR Task Forces review, categorize and prioritize information gathered through the ILCOR network, and publish their findings with regard to current best practices. This process is also referred to as the PICO process, which considers the Populations involved with the data, the Interventions performed, the Comparators in similar circumstances, and the Outcomes for each patient. The individual Task Forces utilize the PICO studies to produce First Aid and CPR performance recommendations that will result in the most positive outcomes possible.

First Aid and CPR training agencies, such as the Canadian Red Cross review the CoSTR findings and then decide what, if any changes to current protocols should be adopted, as well how to implement these changes through public education and certification course curriculum.

The clinical skills themselves, as related to Emergency Cardiac Care (ECC) and First Aid guidelines are balanced with the capacity to deliver training consistent with public capacity and the ability to perform the skills with confidence in an emergency, and sometimes a simplified version of a procedure is preferable for public education.