The Medtronic Foundation has committed $15 million to reduce sudden cardiac arrest deaths in the US. The foundation has committed the money to fund five state projects with HeartRescue Project Partners over the next five years.

The HeartRescue Project assembles many of the country’s emergency and resuscitation experts to expand successful city and county sudden cardiac arrest response programs to statewide levels. The goal is to improve out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates by at least 50% in five years in Arizona, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

HeartRescue Partners at the Universities of Arizona, Duke, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Washington, and their partner agencies, will coordinate proven protocols and high-tech treatments along three critical levels of response: bystanders, emergency medical services and hospitals.