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Daily scan
Paramedic research, 22 October 2026
15 new paramedic and prehospital papers from the 22 October 2026 scan.
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Dispatcher training + volunteer app: more CPR, no outcome gain
A stepped-wedge cluster-randomised trial in French EMS agencies found dispatcher training in arrest recognition, telephone CPR and a geolocated volunteer responder app was associated with more bystander CPR (61.4% to 70.9%, adjusted OR 1.54), an effect that lost significance after adjusting for secular trends; clinical outcomes did not improve.
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Real-time feedback tidies BVM ventilation in arrest
A Paris before-and-after study of 163 arrests found real-time feedback during bag-valve-mask ventilation improved insufflated-volume adherence (68% vs 42% of breaths in the 400–600 mL range) and cut leak volume by 12%, although expired tidal volumes were unchanged.
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Fatigue common a year after cardiac arrest
A Victorian population-based cohort of 728 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors found fatigue in 35.8%, anxiety in 22.6% and depression in 18.0% at 12 months, with heavier symptom burden linked to worse quality of life, function and return to work.
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Shorter pulse checks linked to more ROSC
A 252-patient quasi-randomised multicentre study in Türkiye found pulse checks completed within 5 seconds were associated with roughly double the ROSC rate of checks lasting 6–10 seconds (36.3% vs 19.5%, OR 2.39), alongside better capnographic dynamics.
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Pad application is the AED time bottleneck
Timestamps from 8,115 remotely monitored Japanese AEDs showed pad application consumed a median 81% of the power-on-to-first-analysis interval, with completion inside about 50 seconds marking shocks delivered within 60 seconds of power-on.
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Whole blood on ambulances: first two years
The first two years of a prehospital low-titre O-positive whole blood program in Oklahoma (71.6% penetrating trauma) showed significantly improved prehospital vital signs after paramedic transfusion, with improved systolic blood pressure tied to higher survival to hospital arrival.
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Physician-directed ALS: no survival gain
A 129,207-case Korean difference-in-differences study found regions adopting video physician-directed prehospital ALS for cardiac arrest had modestly higher prehospital ROSC (+1.35 percentage points) but no gain in survival or neurological outcome, with prehospital times stretching about 4 minutes.
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Mass casualty care: slower but no deadlier
A matched German trauma-registry cohort (423 severely injured MCI patients vs 1,692 routine controls) found mass-casualty patients waited longer on scene (85 vs 67 minutes) and received more intubation and tranexamic acid, yet in-hospital mortality was similar (13.5% vs 11.7%).
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Prehospital flumazenil: 69 doses, no seizures
A five-year Kansas review of 69 prehospital flumazenil administrations for suspected benzodiazepine overdose found clinical improvement with no seizures or adverse events recorded, even where possible contraindications existed.
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OHCA registry clock times run short
Linking 56,969 Swedish OHCA registry records to dispatch-centre data showed unit response times matched almost exactly, but registry-recorded total response times ran a median 81 seconds shorter than the dispatch clock.
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Resilience as a skill, not a trait
Semi-structured interviews with 20 Queensland paramedics and dispatchers framed frontline resilience as a trainable expert skill — a deliberately entered 'work mode' with preparation, containment and recovery phases — rather than a fixed trait.
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Bathroom jobs eat scene time
Among 26,058 older Japanese patients transported from home, EMS on-scene time ran up to 9% longer when the patient was found in the toilet, bathroom or kitchen and on higher floors, and shorter in corridors and gardens.
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POC troponin on ambulances: fewer ED visits
A French economic model built on 737 patients found prehospital point-of-care high-sensitivity troponin reduced ED attendance (90.9% vs 96.7%) and ED length of stay (1.63 vs 2.76 hours) versus standard care for suspected acute coronary syndrome.
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Decision support eases stroke triage load
In a randomised crossover simulation trial, 35 Taiwanese emergency medical technicians using a stroke triage decision-support interface showed reduced mental workload (RMSSD up 4.3 ms, heart rate down, NASA-TLX lower) versus dispatch orders alone.
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Dutch TEAM tool validated for resus training
A Dutch translation of the TEAM team-performance instrument showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's α 0.93) and good three-rater reliability (ICC 0.78) across 104 simulated resuscitation team performances in ALS courses.