Skip to content
Children running in a field

Project ADAM

Project ADAM South Alabama is a program administered by USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital to help prepare schools for sudden cardiac emergencies.

Is your school prepared for a cardiac emergency?

There are approximately 350,000 sudden cardiac deaths in the United States each year. As many as 23,000 of these tragedies occur in children or adolescents. On any given day, approximately 20% of a community’s population is on a school campus, and because sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is the leading cause of death on school campuses, a focused effort on SCA preparedness in schools is critical to protect the children, teachers, staff and visitors in our school communities.

What is Project ADAM?

The Project ADAM initiative provides schools with guidance and support on how to minimize the risk of sudden cardiac death in the school setting through CPR and AED (automated external defibrillator) response planning. Schools partnering with Project ADAM can earn a designation as a "Heart Safe School."

What does it mean to have a Heart Safe School designation?

A school with a Heart Safe School designation follows a nationwide standard of best practices to ensure the school is ready to respond quickly and appropriately to a cardiac emergency. The 14-step Project ADAM Checklist [PDF] not only confirms proper placement of AEDs on campus, but also establishes a proper ratio of trained CPR/AED personnel to school population. This planning and preparation process culminates with implementing this plan during a CPR/AED drill.

Get started!

To connect your school with Project ADAM South Alabama or for more information, contact the Project Coordinator at projectadam@health.southalabama.edu. We look forward to working with you on this life-saving initiative. We also can help your sports team or community site reach Heart Safe Site status.

Can you see it? Click on the "Reveal" button to reveal what we're seeing at USA Health

This link will open in a new tab or window.