Canada's national cardiac arrest registry
CanROC links paramedic and fire services, hospitals and researchers across Canada. Together we track what happens in every out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, find the gaps in care, and test new ways to close them.
out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Canada each year. That is one every nine minutes.
Fewer than one in ten people treated for a cardiac arrest outside hospital survive.
Drop in the chance of surviving with good brain function for every minute before high-quality CPR starts.
of cardiac arrests where a bystander applied an AED, even as more AEDs go up in public places.
Source: 2025 CanROC Report (registry data year 2022). Canada does not require cardiac arrest to be tracked by law. CanROC fills that gap.
Get involved
Survivors, families and bystanders sit on our committees, review grants and help decide what gets studied.
Participating services get performance reports, national benchmarks and a network of peers working on the same problems.
Propose a registry analysis, find a mentor at a CanROC site, or join a writing group with a CanROC sponsor.
How the registry works
Paramedics, firefighters and hospital staff already document every cardiac arrest. Trained CanROC staff abstract that record into a secure, de-identified national database, stage by stage.
During the original Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (2005–2015), simply measuring and sharing response times, bystander CPR and CPR quality improved survival more than any single treatment tested. CanROC brings that approach to the whole country.
Research
A cluster-randomized trial across six Ontario paramedic services compared standard shocks with vector-change and double sequential external defibrillation. Both alternatives improved survival to hospital discharge, and the technique is now in international guidelines.
Bars show relative ranking only. Exact figures to be added from the published trial.
Read the study →Is a lower total dose of epinephrine (up to 2 mg) better than the standard dose (up to 6 mg) for survival to hospital discharge?
Study details →Drone delivery of AEDs to cut response times where ambulances are far away, developed with Transport Canada and NAV CANADA.
Study details →Training 9-1-1 communications officers to recognize agonal breathing so callers are coached into CPR sooner.
Study details →Trained community volunteers who can reach a cardiac arrest at home before paramedics, being explored in Frontenac and Peel.
Study details →The network
Each site runs research and quality improvement locally and contributes to one national database.
I'm alive, well and living a normal life today.Lauren Ross, cardiac arrest survivor at 28, Ottawa · Public engagement partner
News & events
The American Heart Association recognized CanROC for international collaboration that advances resuscitation science.
Our first national report with Heart & Stroke: who has cardiac arrest, where, what care they receive, and who survives.
Our research-in-progress series for trainees and investigators returns this fall. Past sessions are in the archive.
The annual gathering of every CanROC site, agency and partner. Dates and registration to come.
For paramedic and fire services
Join the services already benchmarking their care against the national picture. CanROC staff will walk you through the application.