Magnusson, Carl
Ryge, Helena
Scott, Filip
Herlitz, Johan
Axelsson, Christer
Funding for this research was provided by:
University of Gothenburg
Article History
Received: 4 April 2021
Accepted: 20 July 2021
First Online: 15 December 2021
Declarations
:
: The Swedish Ethical Review Authority (Gothenburg) approved the study (approval no. 970-15). In this registry study, informed consent was waived. The requirements of informed consent on scene in this type of study is most often not recommended by the ethical committees in Sweden for the following reasons 1) It is not possible to identify the individual patient since the personal ID number has been coded; 2) Some of the most severe cased could never be contacted in retrospect since they had either died or were in a very poor condition. On top of that logistical reasons and language barriers prevented communication with a number of patients. Thus, the requirement of informed consent would increase the risk of selection bias and thereby impede the reliability of the data. 3) It may be considered unethical to approach the next of kin in such a situation. However, patients who were transported to hospital by the EMS and had expressed their wish for secrecy regarding their personal ID number in case records were excluded from the retrospective data collection in the study. Data have been treated confidentially and were therefore de-identified before analysis. No data have been presented on an individual level. The study is performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines.
: Not applicable
: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.