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HTA publishes 1000th issue

Date: 10 April 2017

Health Technology Assessment Journal, part of the NIHR journal series, has today published its 1000th issue. This journal publishes research funded by the NIHR HTA programme, as well as Technology Appraisal Reports commissioned by NICE. The first issue was published back in 1997. It has an Impact Factor of 4.058 and is ranked 6th (out 87 titles) in the 'Health Care Sciences & Services' category of the Thomson Reuters 2014 Journal Citation Reports (Science Edition).

The NIHR is the world’s first health research funder to publish comprehensive accounts of its commissioned research within its own publicly and permanently available journals. The NIHR Journals Library comprises a suite of five open access peer-reviewed journals reporting results from a range of health research areas.

The 1000th issue features the full results of the ground breaking PARAMEDIC trial, which compared a mechanical chest compression device to the manual delivery of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to see if it improved survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. It found no evidence to suggest that patients treated with mechanical compressions had better survival rates than those treated with manual CPR.

 

Professor Simon Gates, University of Warwick Co-Chief Investigator said:

“Conducting research in out of hospital cardiac arrest is particularly challenging. The study has helped refine the ambulance service response to out of hospital cardiac arrest and confirmed the importance of focusing on high quality manual CPR.  In finding no benefit from mechanical devices, the study showed that investment in these devices by the NHS would not be cost-effective.”

This trial was awarded ‘Trial of the Year 2014’ by the US-based Society for Clinical Trials (SCT).

Professor Hywel Williams, Director of the NIHR HTA programme said: “Publishing our 1000th issue is a wonderful achievement for the NIHR HTA programme. The PARAMEDIC trial is a great example of the type of research that we fund and support.”

Visit the NIHR Journals Library to read this landmark edition of the HTA journal https://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/hta/about-the-hta-journal.htm

Watch Professor Williams Director’s video to hear more about the HTA journal https://youtu.be/-9BcOD3cfQ4