The founding, role, and development of ILCOR

Excerpt

The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) is an interdisciplinary medical advisory group that has almost unparalleled global representation. It was conceived in February 1992 at the Fifth National Conference on Cardiopulmonary Care in Dallas, Texas. The American Heart Association hosted the meeting, and through the generosity of that organization more than 25% of delegates came from outside the United States. They represented 25 countries and 53 international organizations. Many of the individuals who participated had previously worked together to set up ‘Utstein style’ international consensus statements for uniform reporting of data relating to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, later expanded to cover other collaborative ventures. This experience greatly facilitated the discussions in Dallas. The decision to set up a permanent group emerged during the discussion of a session on International Issues chaired by Richard Cummins and Douglas Chamberlain. After the suggestion had been made, it was warmly endorsed by the meeting as a whole, and immediately seen as a means for setting common international guidelines on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and emergency cardiac care (ECC). Representation was not restricted to North America, Europe, and Australia but soon included multidisciplinary societies or councils from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. By 1999, representatives from China, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, and Malaysia were welcomed to attend meetings. Few inhabited parts of the world do not have full representation or at least close links at the present time. The group was originally called simply the ‘Liaison Committee on CPR’ but Walter Kloek of South Africa later made the suggestion of the current title; others appreciated the link implied by the acronym ILCOR to the concept of ‘sick heart’! …