The Evaluation of Online Medical Consultation Use in Pediatric Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Our study details Online medical consultation (OLMC) usage for Pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (P-OHCA), including proportion of P-OHCA utilizing OLMC, the characteristics of cases using OLMC, the types of information exchanged during OLMC calls, and the outcomes in patients where Emergency Medical Services (EMS) contacted OLMC.

The study included P-OHCA patients treated by EMS agencies participating in the regional cardiac registry with total catchment population of approximately 1.5 million residents. We reviewed linked calls and EMS charts for P-OHCA cases treated from January 1st, 2018 through December 31st, 2022.

In total, 112 cases from January 2018 to December 2022 were included in the final analysis. Twenty-two out of 112 utilized OLMC with a mean time from 9-1-1 call to OLMC of 28.8 min. The no OLMC group had a significantly higher transport rate than OLMC group as well as higher percentages of ROSC at any time and ROSC upon arrival at the ED. Both survival to admission and survival to discharge were more prevalent in the no OLMC group, while there were no instances of survival to discharge in the OLMC group. During the calls, the discussion of crucial prognostic factors, including witness status, initial rhythm, ETCO2, and arrest duration, appears inconsistent.

Pediatric-OHCA cases with OLMC tend to contact OLMC late in the resuscitation, have poor prognostic factors, and have poor survival outcomes. The information exchanged during OLMC calls was highly variable, representing a clear opportunity for improvement. Future studies should explore the potential effect of early OLMC contact on patient outcomes and if a standardized template for OLMC data exchange improves consistency in recommendations for P-OHCA.