Dr. Michael Mancera has been named to the Citizen CPR Foundation’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2021. The announcement coincided with the Cardiac Arrest Survival Summit, held December 7-10 in San Diego, Calif.
“I’m very honored to be included with this amazing group of individuals who have made significant contributions to cardiac arrest care,” said Mancera.
The Citizen CPR Foundation’s 40 Under 40 recognition program engages, strengthens and celebrates the future of sudden cardiac arrest training, response and survival by recognizing 40 outstanding individuals who are under 40 years of age.
Nominees for this year’s awards included highly qualified candidates from around the world representing a wide range of services and skills aimed at improving outcomes from sudden cardiac arrest, including educators, researchers, clinicians, survivors, family support members and first responders.
Every year, more than 300,000 people experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the United States. Unfortunately, the majority of these patients do not survive. The Citizen CPR Foundation aims to highlight individuals around the globe who have made significant contributions to measuring outcomes, improving care, and saving lives.
“The Citizen CPR Foundation launched the 40 Under 40 initiative in 2018 as a way to recognize and support the talented individuals who are leading the future of sudden cardiac arrest awareness and outcomes,” said Stu Berger, Citizen CPR Foundation President. “This year, we received more nominations than ever, a testament to the inspiring work that’s being done in communities around the world.”
Dr. Mancera became interested in sudden cardiac arrest preparedness and survival during his emergency medicine residency when while he was resuscitating a patient who had suffered a cardiac arrest, he came to a stark realization that changed the course of his career: that many of the critical events leading to the successful return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) in the patient had occurred before the patient ever arrived at the hospital.
Recognizing the importance of timely prehospital care in providing a second chance at life for the most critically ill and injured patients set Mancera on the trajectory he’s on today, and he remains resolved to use his role as an emergency medicine physician to enhance EMS capabilities to deliver lifesaving care in the prehospital setting.
Dr. Mancera currently serves as an EMS medical director at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and UW Health and supports local and county EMS agencies, where he has had the opportunity to utilize cardiac arrest data to drive improvement in sudden cardiac arrest outcomes.
Spurred on by his resolve to improve lifesaving outcomes, Dr. Mancera championed the implementation of the Cardiac Arrest Registry for Enhanced Survival (CARES) throughout the local and county EMS system. This national registry allows EMS systems to collect and analyze out-of-hospital cardiac arrest data and compare it to national benchmarks, allowing for local quality improvement efforts and benchmarking capability to improve care and increase survival. In the five years following the implementation of CARES, area out-of-hospital cardiac arrests have seen continuous improvement.
Dr. Mancera has also helped to develop and teach High-Performance CPR techniques for EMS providers and has delivered numerous EMS training sessions and lectures to local EMS partners. He is also passionate about training the next generation of EMS medical directors and serves as the inaugural director of the accredited EMS fellowship program at the University of Wisconsin.
Dr. Mancera completed his emergency medicine residency at Michigan State University in Grand Rapids, and an EMS fellowship at the University of Indiana. He is currently an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Wisconsin Department of Emergency Medicine. Mancera serves as medical director for several local agencies, including Fitch-Rona EMS and Middleton EMS. He is board certified in emergency medicine and EMS and is a Fellow of the Academy of Emergency Medical Services (FAEMS).