Cardiac Arrest Kills 300,000 Americans Annually; Can Better CPR Change That? with Norman Paradis, MD

Sudden cardiac arrest kills 300,000 Americans each year. The standard treatment—manual chest compressions—hasn't meaningfully changed in 60 years and achieves less than 10% survival in most communities.In this episode, CPR Therapeutics founder and CEO Norman Paradis joins Dan Mazzucco to talk about developing the first multimodal automated CPR system. They discuss why emergency medicine gets "hand-me-downs" from cardiology, how circumferential compression delivers five times more force without breaking ribs, navigating exception from informed consent trials, building strategic relationships with major device companies, and why EFIC trial requirements create both the highest barrier and the strongest competitive moat.This conversation is for medtech innovators who recognize that sometimes the biggest unmet needs hide in plain sight because no one wants to fund the early-stage R&D, and who understand that regulatory barriers can become competitive advantages if you're willing to climb them first.Norman Paradis, MD, is the Founder and CEO of CPR Therapeutics, an NIH and NSF-funded medical device startup developing the first effective integrated system for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He is Emeritus Professor of Emergency Medicine at Dartmouth and former Chief of Emergency Medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Dr. Paradis received his medical degree from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 1984 and completed his residency in emergency medicine at USC/LA General Medical Center. He has over 40 years of experience and has been active in biomedical innovation throughout his career, previously holding positions at University of Colorado, Columbia University, NYU, and Medical College of Virginia. Dr. Paradis served on the American Heart Association's Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) Subcommittee for over 10 years, is a founding member of SAEM's Reperfusion Working Group, and serves on editorial boards of The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, Resuscitation, and JAMA's Critical Illness section. He has published more than 50 papers in cardiology, critical care, and emergency medicine, and is senior editor of Cardiac Arrest: The Science and Practice of Resuscitation Medicine. Prior to CPR Therapeutics, he contributed to the development of NT-ProBNP (a widely used heart failure biomarker) and worked with multiple resuscitation technology startups.