Opening a new front in the fight against sudden cardiac death: Is it time for near-term prevention?

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a major issue of public health with more than 350,000 deaths per year in the United States, accounting for almost half of cardiovascular mortality. Despite major investments in both prevention and resuscitation, SCD mortality remains high, highlighting the need for a novel approach to reduce SCD burden. We hereby propose a new approach - near-term prevention - that is based on Anticipation, aiming to ensure that resuscitation will be initiated early enough after SCD, or even that prophylactic therapy will be initiated in this well targeted population for preventing SCD occurrence.