The largest study of rapid response systems to date, the MERIT trial was conducted in 23 Australian hospitals and did not demonstrate overall improvement in clinical outcomes. However, a limitation of this study was that the rapid response team was not actually called to evaluate the majority of patients who subsequently suffered a cardiac arrest. This retrospective analysis of data from the same study found evidence for a "dose-response" relationship between rapid response team use and clinical outcomes, in that early activation of the team was associated with a reduction in cardiac arrests.