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Previous studies have shown that chest compression is performed only about 50% of the applicable time during prehospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation efforts. In this multicenter, observational cohort study, researchers assessed the fraction of CPR time spent on chest compressions and its effect on survival in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who had an initial rhythm of ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia and who had received CPR for at least 1 minute prior to shock. The authors analyzed records for 506 patients who were treated by 78 emergency medical services systems in Canada and the U.S. from 2005 to 2007. The proportion of time dedicated to chest compressions during 1-minute intervals was measured by chang…