NAP7 topic has been selected: perioperative cardiac arrest

Published: 03/09/2018

The College is pleased to announce that the topic of the Seventh National Audit Project (NAP7) will be perioperative cardiac arrest. A panel comprised of senior clinicians from the RCoA, the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia (NIAA), Health Services Research Centre (HSRC), and trainee and lay representatives selected the topic after a highly competitive application process. The topic has now been ratified by the Clinical Quality & Research Board and College Council and is now formally the focus for NAP7.

The energy and enthusiasm shown for NAP6 meant that submissions for NAP7 were always going to be competitive. NAP7 garnered a total of 64 formal applications (including two from Australia), covering more than 40 discrete topics.
The selection process for what qualifies as a NAP is stringent, with main requirements being:

  • the topic has to be important to patients
  • the topic has to be important to anaesthetists
  • the topic should be incompletely studied
  • the topic should be so rare that it is not suitable for study by better or simpler methods

The selection panel also wished to note the high level and quality of trainee involvement in the proposals for NAP7, including the submission for the successful topic.

Professor Tim Cook, who has been the director of the National Audit Projects since NAP3, will not oversee NAP7 as he steps down in the autumn. Like NAP5 and NAP6, NAP7 will be overseen by the HSRC. The College will soon be advertising for a clinical lead for NAP7, more details will follow on this website and in the College’s journals and bulletins.