Highlights of the 2025 AmericanHeart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care

These Highlights provide an overview of the major updates and key issues presented in the 2025 American Heart Association (AHA) Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC). The 2025 Guidelines represent a comprehensive revision of the AHA’s recommendations across adult, pediatric, and neonatal life support, resuscitation education science, systems of care, and ethical considerations in resuscitation. They are designed to help resuscitation professionals and AHA instructors focus on the most impactful, debated, or practice-changing recommendations in resuscitation training and clinical application. Each recommendation is supported by its underlying rationale.As this publication serves as a summary, it does not include the primary research references or detail the Classes of Recommendation and Levels of Evidence. For complete information, readers should consult the full 2025 Guidelines and Executive Summary, published in Circulation (October 2025), along with the 2025 International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) Consensus on Science With Treatment Recommendations, published concurrently in Circulation and Resuscitation. Detailed methodologies used by ILCOR for evidence assessment and by the AHA for guideline development are also published elsewhere.The 2025 Guidelines apply the latest AHA definitions for each Class of Recommendation and Level of Evidence. In total, 760 specific recommendations are included across adult, pediatric, and neonatal life support, resuscitation education, and systems of care. Of these, 233 are Class 1, 451 are Class 2, and 76 are Class 3 recommendations—comprising 55 identified as having no benefit and 21 associated with potential harm.

AHA Disclaimer

A group of students reading materials related to medical training, including a document labeled 'Merdemt'.

​The American Heart Association strongly promotes knowledge and proficiency in all AHA courses and has developed instructional materials for this purpose. Use of these materials in an educational course does not represent course sponsorship by the AHA. Any fees charged for such a course, except for a portion of fees needed for AHA course materials, do not represent income to the AHA.

The American Heart Association strongly promotes knowledge and skill in all AHA courses and has developed instructional materials. Using these materials in an educational course does not represent course sponsorship by the AHA. Any fees charged for such a course do not represent income to the AHA. A part of the fees needed for the AHA course materials is expected.

AHA 2020 Updates & Changes

AHA 2020 Updates & Changes

ACLS Class, PALS Class & BLS Class

AHA 2020 Updates & Changes

Indirect Renewal Course

With the recent change in the 2020 ACLS & PALS courses, Virtual training is no longer necessary.

The 2020 Release of ACLS & PALS allows for viewing the videos at home and then (when required) coming to class for a 2-3 hour session. This is even better than the Virtual option and allows for a safe, convenient course.

ALL CONTENT BELOW IS OBSOLETE! Please Disregard.

To minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission during AHA courses, the American Heart Association has put protocols in place that allow us to do our classes virtually.  The upcoming courses will be done via Zoom.  In this session, you will be able to watch the videos, interact with our instructor(s), and take a written exam.  

Please understand that in-person classes are easier for learning from. When you take an Online or Virtual course, we assume you have prepared for it. We do provide links to preparation information so you can get the most from your training. I will emphasize that Virtual and Online training is not the same as in-person training.

​Upon successful completion of this process, you will be scheduled to conduct a hands-on skills practice and skills session. Upon meeting all course requirements, you will receive an AHA completion card valid for 2 years. 

We have found this to be very conducive for Renewal students.

For the Initial students, we have taken extra measures to provide the best possible training and to allow for a Classroom Session that ties together the online training.

If there are any questions, please reach out directly.

r your patience as we navigate these new waters

Contact the Training Center for more information – 718-441-0656