Cardiac arrest - a societal challenge and potential national health goal Thesis 1 of the Bad Boll Resuscitation and Emergency Talks 2023

With currently about 113,000 patients suffering from a cardiac arrest per year and about 60,000 resuscitation procedures initiated per year, sudden cardiac arrest and out-of-hospital resuscitation are a major public health problem in Germany. One third of the resuscitated patients are from the working age group between 18 and 65 years. This not only has a major personal impact in each individual case, but also overall economic implications. Policy-makers and the government must recognise the importance of an efficient and quality -assured emergency medical service and make it a priority. Good emergency medical care needs not only professi-onal care structures, but also self-help competences of the citizens. Prevention and a good education of the risk patients are equally important. A definition as a national health goal could help to better organise resuscitation management.