A study engineered to explore the full human experience of cardiac arrest patients
STEPCARE is a large international clinical trial investigating how best to support people who remain unconscious after cardiac arrest.
The study compares three common approaches used in intensive care — sedation, temperature management, and blood pressure targets — to understand which combinations lead to better long-term recovery.
Turning new research ideas into active sub-studies
With sites across Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, and the UK, STEPCARE is large enough to support more than its primary research questions. The study’s scale creates space for sub-studies to investigate the different stages of recovery — ICU care, personal recovery, in-home support, and caregiver experience. This flexibility is becoming a defining characteristic of this trial.
“It’s an opportunity for principal investigators around the world to bring their questions and apply them to this group of participants.” - Amanda Daley, Product Owner, Spiral Software.
One of STEPCARE’s strengths is the pace at which new sub-studies can be activated. Because the infrastructure is designed to support that, lead investigators can open a sub-study at selected sites, enrol participants immediately, introduce new data fields or timepoints, and run multiple pieces of work in parallel — without slowing the main study.
For clinical researchers, this means they can move from an idea to an active investigation far more quickly than traditional trial structures allow, and they can test those ideas within the same participant cohort. This speed matters for clinicians because it means new questions emerging from practice can be translated into research without long delays.
“This is where our team becomes particularly valuable. Our experience across complex, global trials means we know which questions to ask early, where study designs typically encounter challenges, and how to shape data capture so it supports both the main protocol and the intricate needs of each sub-study.“
Seeing the full picture of recovery
The growing set of sub-studies is enabling the global research community to examine the full human experience of cardiac arrest — from the moment a patient enters the ICU to their rehabilitation and recovery at home.
“STEPCARE is not just collecting ICU data. It’s following people through their recovery and hearing from their ongoing caregivers as well. That full lifecycle is what makes the trial useful for researchers around the world who want to study different parts of that journey.”
So, STEPCARE follows enrolled patients well beyond the immediate critical care window:
a short ICU randomisation period
hourly and daily observations
follow-ups at six and twelve months
caregiver involvement
“When something terrible happens to us, it doesn’t just happen to us. It happens to everyone around us. Sub-studies build on this broader view — from biological data collection in an ICU setting, to pain and mobility assessments at Day 30 and ongoing in-home care.”
Each adds another layer to understanding long-term recovery after cardiac arrest. Working from the same participant group means insights can be generated much faster — and that pace can help shape health systems and models of care well beyond this single clinical trial.
A growing global research ecosystem
A trial that can onboard new research at pace and support parallel sub-studies creates a powerful foundation for global collaboration. Investigators across borders can work from the same cohort, build insights quickly, and contribute to a growing, shared body of evidence.
STEPCARE demonstrates how thoughtful digital infrastructure design can turn a single study into a global research ecosystem.
“When multiple research groups can build evidence from the same cohort, the field moves forward faster than any one study can ever achieve alone!” - Audrey Shearer, Founder & CEO, Spiral Software.
