Neonatal cardiopulmonary resuscitation project in Japan

In July 2007, the Neonatal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (NCPR) program in Japan was launched to ensure that all staff involved in perinatal and neonatal medicine can learn and practice NCPR based on the Consensus on Science with Treatment Recommendations developed by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation. In 1978 in North America, a working group on pediatric resuscitation was formed by the American Heart Association Emergency Cardiac Care Committee and concluded that the resuscitation of newborns required a different strategy than the resuscitation of adults. The original first edition of the Neonatal Resuscitation Program textbook was published in 1987. The NCPR program consists of three courses for health-care providers and two courses for instructors. A course and B course are for newly certified health-care providers and course S is for health-care providers who are renewing their certification. As of 31 March 2019, 3,227 advanced instructors (I instructor) and 1,877 basic instructors (J instructor) were trained to teach A, B, and S courses to health-care providers on the basis of their license. In total 7,075 A courses and 4,012 B courses were held; 131 651 people attended A course or B course of the NCPR program, and 77 367 were certified. A total of 1,865 S courses, which were developed in 2015, were held and 12 875 people attended this course. Here, we introduce the background, purpose, history, and content of the development of the NCPR program in Japan.