The Pan-Asian Resuscitation Outcomes Study (PAROS) clinical research network: what, where, why and how

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a global health concern with an incidence rate of 50-60 per 100,000 person-years. To improve OHCA survival rates, several cardiac arrest registries have been set up in North America and Europe, such as the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium, Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival, Ontario Prehospital Advanced Life Support and European Registry of Cardiac Arrest. In Asia, however, there was previously no concerted effort in prehospital emergency care research owing to differences in prehospital emergency medical services systems, data collection methods and outcome reporting between countries. Recognising the need for a collaborative prehospital emergency care research group in Asia, researchers from seven countries in the Asia-Pacific region (including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates-Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia) established the Pan-Asian Resuscitation Outcomes Study (PAROS) clinical research network in 2010. This paper gives the overview, methodology and research accomplishments of the PAROS network.