Neighborhood-Level Disparities in Resuscitation and the Potential of Connected Health

In 1999, Iwashyna et al¹ reported significant variation in rates of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) delivery based on the racial composition of neighborhoods in Chicago, Illinois. Patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) living in racially integrated neighborhoods had the highest likelihood of receiving CPR, followed by those living in predominately white neighborhoods. Conversely, patients with OHCA living in predominantly black neighborhoods had the lowest rates of CPR provision. At the time, these findings raised fundamental questions concerning unequal access to the life-saving treatment of CPR. Nearly 20 years later, little has changed and considerable racial disparities in OHCA resuscitation care and outcomes persist.