Season 3 Episode 7: The 3-Minute Cardiac Arrest Window

Andie Morataya

Happy Wednesday everyone! Welcome to the Better Living Through Data podcast! On today's episode, we're looking at Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month - and specifically our data in the CVD arena. Anthony, you hear three hundred and fifty six thousand lives lost every single year in the United States, and you think, okay, heart attacks, right?

Anthony Pero

Right, the old "plumbing versus electrical issue" analogy always comes up. It seems like people confuse the issues constantly.

Andie Morataya

Exactly! A heart attack is a plumbing problem, blood flow gets blocked, right? But sudden cardiac arrest is an electrical shutdown. The heart just abruptly stops beating altogether. And because people do not know the difference or what to do, our national survival rate has been stuck under ten percent for about three decades.

Anthony Pero

Three decades. Ten percent. That's just remarkably stagnant when you consider how basic the immediate fix actually is. The math on the emergency window is so steep. If someone steps in with hands only CPR within three minutes of collapse, they triple that person's chance of surviving.

Andie Morataya

Triples it! And if you get an automated external defibrillator, an AED, on them in that very first minute, using an AED in the first minute of collapse can increase survival to ninety percent.

Anthony Pero

Ninety percent. From under ten to ninety. That drop off after sixty seconds is just brutal. It is why Congress declared October as National Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month back in 2008, and why the CDC pushes simple frameworks like Call Push Shock. But, uh, Andie, knowing what to do in theory and actually getting a bystander to grab an AED in a hallway or a gym are two very different things.

Andie Morataya

Oh, absolutely. I think about this all the time from a behavioural standpoint. In public spaces, even in long term care or senior living settings where over ten percent of out of hospital cardiac arrests actually occur, you can have the device on the wall, but if staff or visitors panic or do not recognize it as an electrical failure instantly, those precious three minutes just slip right away.

Anthony Pero

Mm, yeah. The execution gap.

Andie Morataya

Right! It is all about confidence and training before the emergency happens. But, okay, Anthony, what about before the collapse entirely? In those long term care populations you mentioned, can we actually see this coming?

Anthony Pero

That, uh, that is really the frontier we are working on now at PointClickCare Life Sciences. Because in older adults, especially residents in long term care facilities, cardiac arrest rarely happens in a complete vacuum. There are structural heart issues, atrial fibrillation, subtle metabolic shifts that are, you know, constantly building under the surface.

Andie Morataya

So its not just a sudden, random lightning bolt, there are, like, silent smoke signals first?

Anthony Pero

There are. The trouble has always been capturing those signals in real time across large populations. In our real world data, we are tracking over thirty eight million unique patient records with cardiovascular disease. And in long term care, our electronic health records capture over fifty data points per patient per day.

Andie Morataya

Wow, fifty points per patient every single day across thirty eight million records. That's such a deep dive into this population.

Anthony Pero

Yeah, fifty plus points per day, spanning over fifteen million patients aged sixty five and older. We are talking about longitudinal lab results, like Troponin trends or BNP and NT proBNP biomarkers, alongside daily vital observations, pulse, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and even medication persistence.

Andie Morataya

So instead of waiting for someone to collapse and hoping an AED is nearby within that one minute window, researchers and clinical leaders can look at that continuous data stream to flag who is actually at high risk for an arrhythmia beat before it happens?

Anthony Pero

Exactly. It shifts us from pure emergency reaction to true risk stratification. When health systems and life sciences partners analyze clinical real world evidence at this scale, they can align directly with national initiatives like Healthy People 2030, specifically the PREP 01 objectives for bystander CPR and PREP 02 for AED deployment. But more importantly, it helps clinicians refine treatment plans and advance care goals well ahead of a crisis.

Andie Morataya

I love that. Bridging the gap between high tech data insights and immediate, real world life saving action. It all comes back to being prepared to act, whether you are analyzing patient trends or pushing on a chest.

Anthony Pero

That is it. Call, push, shock, and pay attention to the data.

Andie Morataya

Thanks to everyone listening in today! And thanks, Anthony for this important conversation!

Anthony Pero

Great chat! If our listeners want to learn more about our clinical CVD data, they can visit the link in today's podcast description. Thanks for joining us today!

Andie Morataya

Bye everyone!