Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Register (OHCAR)

What is OHCAR?

OHCAR collects data on out of hospital cardiac arrests in the Republic of Ireland which are confirmed and attended by the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and where resuscitation is attempted.

OHCAR Aim The overall aim of OHCAR is to facilitate improved outcomes from out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in Ireland by way of:

Collecting information on the population who suffer an OHCA and the circumstances of the arrest
Collecting information on the pre-hospital treatment of OHCA patients
Registering the survival of OHCA patients
Establishing a sufficiently large patient database to enable identification of the best treatment methods for OHCAs and organisation of services
Providing regular feedback to service providers

OHCAR collects data in line with international guidelines for cardiac arrest registries and started collecting data in 2007, and achieved national coverage in 2012.

Data sources

Data is collected from the pre-hospital emergency services in Ireland, The National Ambulance Service (NAS) and Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB). Patient outcome information is sourced from acute hospitals. OHCAR has the approval of the Data Protection Commissioner of Ireland.

OHCAR Statement of Information Practices (PDF, size 802.8 KB, 4 pages)

OHCAR Statement of Purpose (PDF, size 590.5 KB, 4 pages)

OHCAR Data Quality Framework (PDF, size 554.2 KB, 2 pages)

OHCAR Data Quality Statement (PDF, size 580.9 KB, 3 pages)

OHCAR Data Dictionary (PDF, size 131.4 KB, 9 pages)

Partners

OHCAR is funded by the National Ambulance Service, the registry is hosted by the Health Service Executive and academic support is provided by University of Galway.