A Medical Device Daily

The Medtronic Foundation (Minneapolis) has reported new grant guidelines for its HeartRescue program. In 2008, funding priority will be given to school programs that educate students about sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and prepare them to act in an emergency.

Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death throughout the world. Because survival depends greatly on immediate response with CPR and automated external defibrillators (AEDs), prompt action from bystanders is integral to improve overall community survival rates.

To increase the number of bystanders trained in CPR and AED use, the 2008 HeartRescue program will focus U.S. grants on schools, school districts, government agencies, and non-profit organizations that develop comprehensive school-based programs that will prepare a new generation of people to recognize SCA when it happens and take action when it does.

Priority funding will be given to new initiatives that demonstrate effective education and training programs or emergency response planning that would include CPR/AED training for designated responders, as well as students at one or more grade levels each year. Grant funds may not be used to purchase AEDs.

Guidelines for Canada and Europe also will include school-based initiatives, as well as funding first-responder and public-access defibrillation efforts, to meet the different needs of each country.

During the past eight years, the Medtronic Foundation has partnered with more than 150 communities and organizations around the world, providing more than $4 million in HeartRescue grants. These groups promote the benefits of early defibrillation and work to train community members on CPR and AED use.

The deadline for application is Feb. 15.

In other grant news:

John and Regina Scully of San Francisco are funding work in stem cells through a $20 million gift to the Stanford University School of Medicine and Stanford Hospital & Clinics (both Palo Alto, California).

“We are attracted to the big problems with the best potential for significant improvement in the human experience. For some time we have thought the field of stem cell research and, ultimately therapies, is such an opportunity,” said Scully, managing director of SPO Partners (Mill Valley, California). “We should be making this a Manhattan Project-type effort. Stem cell understanding should have a dramatic impact in what many feel will be the century of the biological sciences.”

The gift will help build a new facility to house research programs in stem cells and regenerative medicine at the medical school, as well as build space at the new Stanford Hospital, where the results of this research may one day be applied to patients.

“Promoting rapid transfer of breakthrough discoveries into the care of patients is what has distinguished Stanford Hospital through its history,” said Stanford Hospital president/CEO Martha Marsh. “The Scullys’ generous gift will assure that this legacy continues in the new Stanford Hospital now being planned.”

Scully is a member and a vice chair of the university’s board of trustees, as well as vice chair of the board of directors for Stanford Hospital. He also has served on the board of directors for Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.