On Nov. 13, 2020, the NIIH announced that using a life support machine to replicate the functions of the heart and lungs significantly improved the survival of people who suffered from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The study results were published in The Lancet.

The treatment program involved the life support machine called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) proved so much more effective than the standard treatment for this usually fatal condition that the trial was stopped early after enrolling just 30 of the expected 165 patients.