CEBaP-ILCOR: A partnership for evidence-based first aid guideline development
26/05/25
Top left: workshop for First Aid Task Force on risk of bias assessment, facilitated by CEBaP researcher Jorien Laermans; Top right: group picture of all ILCOR Task Forces during the face-to-face meeting in Taipei in 2024; Bottom left: group picture of First Aid Task Force in Taipei
The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) aims to connect the most important resuscitation and first aid organizations worldwide. It currently comprises representatives of 9 member organizations that create regional resuscitation and first aid guidelines, including the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) and the American Heart Association (AHA). In addition, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is also represented as a collaborating organization of ILCOR.
The mission of ILCOR is to promote, disseminate and advocate for international implementation of evidence-informed resuscitation and first aid. To this end, different groups of volunteers (i.e. Task Forces) continuously review and summarize the scientific literature in a systematic and rigorous manner, and offer consensus on treatment recommendations that can be further contextualized by regional and local guideline developing organizations.
One of CEBaP’s researchers is a member of the First Aid Task Force, which identifies and prioritizes first aid questions, and conducts systematic reviews, scoping reviews and regular evidence updates. The CEBaP researcher not only teams up with other members to conduct reviews, but also provides methodological support to other review teams, and delivers workshops on selected topics that are tailored to the needs and questions of the Task Force members.
Recently, two scoping reviews that CEBaP worked on were published in the Cureus Journal of Medical Science:
- One on the initial preservation of amputated or avulsed body parts;
- A second one on prehospital spinal motion restriction for people with possible traumatic cervical spine injury.
The evidence identified by these two scoping reviews and other first aid-related reviews developed by the different ILCOR Task Forces is currently used to scientifically underpin the ongoing updates of multiple first aid guidelines by:
- Belgian Red Cross-Flanders (Help! First aid for everyone);
- The IFRC;
- The ERC.
