NAP7 – something for everyone

Ward and Iliff suggest there have been too many NAP7 papers [1], which makes it difficult to discern and retain key information [2]. All 12 papers went through our normal peer review processes and were judged by their own merit to have met or exceeded the standards required for publication. The series was spread over two years, with the reporting of the methods first (September 2022, 5200 downloads) followed by the activity survey (March 2023, 9200 downloads), the five main results papers (November 2023, 21,500 downloads) and several specialist papers focusing on topics such as obstetrics [3], anaphylaxis [4], airway management [5] and resuscitation decisions [6].

Peri-operative cardiac arrest is a broad topic encompassing all areas of clinical practice. This perhaps explains why so much data were collected and analysed. Dissemination was through a combination of gold open-access publishing; posts on social media platforms (> 1 million cumulative impressions); author interviews (> 67,000 viewers); and podcasts (> 4200 listens). That said, the content of a paper is always superior to the means of dissemination, and there remains no substitute for reading a published paper in full, critiquing the methods used and contextualising the conclusions reported. Anyone who feels NAP7 has passed them by would benefit from reading the main results papers from November 2023 and any of those relating to their specialist area(s) of practice published thereafter. While supplementary materials such as infographics are sometimes helpful, readers will always benefit more from engaging with the primary published material and reflecting on key messages relevant to their area of practice.