Spokane

Washington Research Saves Lives

Currently in Washington state, the American Heart Association is funding 24 research projects totaling $5.8 million in research grants. Science funded by the AHA has been instrumental in creating advances such as the artificial heart valve, cholesterol-lowering drugs, stents and the mechanical heart pump which helps extend the life of patients. But each year grants go unfunded and the next big ideas wait to be investigated. With your support, we can fund innovation and save and improve lives.

RQI 2020

More than 200,000 in-hospital cardiac arrests occur annually in the United States, with survival rates from adult in-hospital cardiac arrest at less than 26 percent.  Patients who suffer a cardiac arrest must receive the highest quality CPR possible in order to have the best chance of survival.  The Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University in Spokane, was the first medical school in the country to implement the American Heart Association’s RQI 2020® (Resuscitation Quality Improvement®) and first to include a novel resuscitation learning module in medical education curriculum.

As a girl growing up on the Yakama Indian Reservation in Washington, Shelby Clark, 27, knew she wanted to be a nurse, like her aunt and her grandmother. She envisioned herself in critical care nursing via the Navy, maybe even an adrenaline-filled career as a flight nurse.

She did indeed become a nurse, and this spring completed her Doctorate of Nursing Practice in Population Health & Systems Leadership at the University of Washington. With a focus on public health and systems of care, Dr. Clark’s work will be “pretty much the opposite” of tending to critically ill or injured patients during lifesaving medical evacuation flights, she says with a laugh.