On behalf of the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) Program, I would like to share the attached 2020 Scholarship Application for potential state participants. For those who are not familiar with the program, CARES provides communities with an infrastructure to streamline the data collection process for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). In doing so, CARES participants have the ability to benchmark their performance to identify opportunities for quality improvement and thus increase cardiac arrest survival in their community. CARES currently covers over 40% of the US population, 28 state participants and 45 community participants in an additional 14 states. For more information on CARES, please refer to the CARES website.

Over the couple years, CARES has been working closely with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and other partners to expand CARES and improve OHCA survival nationwide. Admiral Brett Giroir, Assistant Secretary of Health, has goals of all 50 states participating in CARES and improving witnessed cardiac arrest survival by 50% in the 5 years. In advance of potential federal funding from HHS beginning in 2021, the American Red Cross (ARC) and the American Heart Association (AHA), have provided additional funding to CARES for scholarships in order to continue progress towards national expansion. The number of scholarships are limited and funds must be allocated to support the position of the state coordinator for a one to two year time period, depending on need. To be considered for the scholarship stakeholders must complete the attached application, not be a current state participant, and be able to pay the $15,000 annual state subscription fee to CARES. The numbers of scholarships are limited and will be dependent on the FTE support needed from each applicant.  For more information on the scholarship, please see the application and the CARES map for current state participants.

CARES asks that applications be completed and returned by April 1st however, applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.  If you have any questions about the program or the scholarship process, please contact Allie Crouch, CARES Director of Operations, directly at ajpark4@emory.edu.