ACS Awareness Week

November 15-21, 2026, marks the American Heart Association’s second annual Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACA) Awareness Week, dedicated to raising awareness about ACS and chest pain

Resources from the Heart

Utilize these tools to engage with your internal code blue teams and patients during the week of June 21-27. Looking for more ways to get involved? Attend a webinar, run a mock code or explore the quality improvement resources below!

In-hospital cardiac arrest affects over 290,000 people a year in the United States. Roughly 25% of adult patients and 45% of pediatric patients survive to hospital discharge.² An initial shockable rhythm (VF/pVT) doubles the chances of ROSC and more than triples the chances of 30-day survival, but the majority of arrests are non-shockable.³ Rapid recognition of patient deterioration, appropriate patient monitoring, timely defibrillation for shockable rhythms, and epinephrine for non-shockable rhythms all contribute to improved patient outcomes.

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² https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epub/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001303(link opens in new window)
³ https://www.resuscitationjournal.com/article/S0300-9572(20)30579-7/fulltext(link opens in new window)

In 1966, an ad hoc CPR committee published the first resuscitation guidelines. We’ve come a long way from then to the 2025 guidelines, which the American Heart Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics developed as a comprehensive resource of extensive evidence evaluation. These 760 recommendations cover patients of all ages, and they can be accessed any time, both online and on our Guidelines On-The-Go app.

View the 2025 Guidelines

Guidelines On-The-Go App - Android | Apple

Cardiac Arrest Chain of Survival & Newborn Chain of Care

Resuscitation Chain

The Chains of Survival in the 2025 Guidelines outline the critical actions needed to maximize cardiac arrest survival. These Chains fit into the Local Implementation factor in the Utstein Formula for survival:

Ustein Formula

Get With The Guidelines®-Resuscitation (link opens in new window)(link opens in new window)bridges all factors in the Utstein Formula and advances well-functioning, guideline-directed Chains of Survival.

Webinars On Demand

During Code Blue Awareness Week, we encourage you to come together with your Code Blue team for a lunch-and-learn session. To support these discussions, we offer these on-demand webinars that you can access anytime, anywhere.

Image of 4 sets of medical workers hands performing airway and paddle resuscitation on a male patient

Dr. Freedman details a comprehensive in-hospital cardiac arrest quality improvement program with actionable strategies for all clinical teams. She also explores the evidence-based rationale behind the guideline-directed CPR metrics that improve survival and outcomes. Dr. Ari Moskowitz moderates a post-presentation Q&A.

WATCH ENHANCING IN-HOSPITAL CARDIAC ARREST PROGRAMS AND CPR QUALITY (link opens in new window)(link opens in new window)

Brian Lockwood - one of the EMTs who responded to Lisa's 911 call - trains a group on CPR. (Photo courtesy of Lisa Wiles)

A webinar focused on risk-standardized survival and the pivotal role of monitoring guideline-directed CPR quality metrics. Dr. Paul Chan illustrates the components of the risk-standardized survival reports, examines survival trends over time and explores the essential components of high-quality CPR. A post-presentation Q&A is moderated by Dr. Monica Kleinman.

WATCH RISK-STANDARDIZED SURVIVAL AND HIGH-QUALITY CPR(link opens in new window) (link opens in new window)(link opens in new window)