Main objective

The aim of the ESCAPE-NET project is to maximize the exploitation of the European cohorts by bringing together Europe’s largest SCA study cohorts in one joint database consisting of >94,000 SCA cases. This will generate the power necessary to unravel the complex causes of SCA with the strategy of a multi-scale approach, ranging from genomics to the socio-economic environment of each individual in the community. This will form the foundation of a personalized risk score, and the development of effective individualized prevention and treatment strategies. As treatment of SCA (particularly first-response treatment) is different between European countries, combining the large cohorts that are present across Europe additionally creates the opportunity to evaluate and compare treatment strategies.

 

Objectives towards the main objective

To achieve the project aim, the following sub-objectives are defined:

Objectives towards population cohort integration:

  1. To combine Europe’s largest deep-phenotyped SCA cohorts for full exploitation of the data
  2. To improve and maximize data sharing and stimulate hypothesis-driven research by using new technologies in building and maintaining this large-scale database
  3. To develop a financial strategy to keep the database alive after the duration of the project

Objectives towards prevention:

  1. To identify genetic, epigenetic, acquired, and environmental risk factors, and their interactions, for SCA occurrence in a combined large-scale European study population.
  2. To design a personalized risk score for SCA occurrence.
  3. To validate the personalized risk score

Objectives towards treatment:

  1.  To relate differences in first-response SCA treatment strategies to survival across different European countries
  2. To evaluate effects of novel technologies for SCA treatment by utilizing smart phone applications (for rapid deployment of lay rescuers) and ICT solutions (waveform analysis)
  3. To design a personalized risk score for survival after SCA