Recommended guidelines for uniform reporting of pediatric advanced life support: the Utstein style.(A Statement for Healthcare Professionals from a Task Force of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Heart Association, and the European Resuscitation Council)

The American Heart Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have developed a reporting form for instances of pediatric resuscitation in order to make data collection and comparison studies easier. The committee provides uniform definitions of key terms and defines how intervals between events are to be described. It suggests a systematic means of evaluating outcomes, taking into account the child's age and condition before the event requiring resuscitation occurred. The form collects data on the characteristics of the population being served and the hospital's characteristics and allows uniform recording of such information as what happened to the child, what was done before medical personnel arrived, the child's status at initiation of treatment, what kind of medical personnel treated the child, their training, what equipment they had, when they arrived, and what care they provided. Similar data are collected on emergency room care. Several problems of data collection remain unresolved and further refinements will be needed.