The simplest, most easily determined, and most easily understood outcomes after cardiac arrest are survival and awakening. Awakening is defined by the patient's being able to follow commands or produce comprehensible speech. Both occur at specific times, thus lending themselves to life-table analyses. Unfortunately, these simple measures are not adequate to characterize the disability that may be present in those who survive and awaken after cardiac arrest. For such patients, measures of independence are needed. These measures often require longer follow-up, direct contact with patients, and a greater understanding of the instrument to be used than for the simple measures. Investigators must decide based on the goals of a particular study what outcomes are most appropriate and the amount of resources that they are willing to devote to outcome assessment. As initial steps in resuscitation research, there may be more to gain from studies of large numbers of patients evaluated with simple measures than small numbers of patients evaluated intensively with more detailed measures.