ZOLL Medical Corporation, a manufacturer of medical devices and related software solutions, announced today the establishment of the ZOLL Foundation, an independent entity organized for scientific and educational purposes. The Foundation will provide grants to support research, education, and public awareness related to improving resuscitation practices, preventing patient deterioration associated with cardiac arrest and morbidity, and enhancing the care of acute patients to reduce mortality and morbidity. It will focus on small seed grants for new investigators starting on the path of resuscitation and acute critical care research, areas where there is a significant gap between need and the availability of funding. It will solicit proposals related to these areas from qualified individuals and organizations with interests in these fields.
Sudden cardiac arrest remains a leading killer of nearly a million people a year worldwide. Most die unexpectedly and without any known risk. Survival on average is low at 5-7%. In communities and settings with CPR training, AED availability, therapeutic hypothermia, and programs fostering improvements in resuscitation practices, as many as half of all victims can survive. Use of wearable defibrillators in at-risk populations has increased survival to over 90% in what otherwise would most likely be a fatal arrhythmia event.
The ZOLL Foundation will operate within the express meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code as Amended, and Section 4 of Chapter 180 of the Massachusetts General Laws as Amended. The ZOLL Foundation is applying for Recognition for Exemption to the Internal Revenue Service, which, if approved, will allow individual tax-deductible charitable donations to the Foundation.
"ZOLL wanted to create a separate nonprofit entity to promote early research in the fields of resuscitation and acute critical care, as well as prevention and education initiatives that are less aligned with commercial success. Stimulating new insights and approaches to the problem of sudden cardiac arrest will lead to ways of improving outcomes," said Richard A. Packer, Chief Executive Officer of ZOLL. "We believe there are many clinical investigators who can be encouraged to focus their skills and talents on this major public health problem through the availability of modest grants to stimulate research. It is our hope that the Foundation's seed money will attract new and young investigators to the field and will spur larger initiatives and attract other research support."
While ZOLL Medical Corporation will continue, as it has over its history, to invest in research in defibrillation, waveforms, external pacing, wearable defibrillators, and therapeutic hypothermia, it believes that this separate Foundation can add to more basic knowledge in these and related fields.
Bystander CPR within 10 minutes of cardiac arrest increases survival chances and brain recovery