The Stop the Bleed campaign was initiated by a federal interagency workgroup convened by the National Security Council Staff, The White House. This collaborative effort was led by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACS COT) to bring knowledge of bleeding control to the public and build national resilience.

Stop the Bleed courses train the public to save lives through three basic actions to stop life-threatening bleeding following everyday emergencies and man-made and natural disasters. Advances made by military medicine and research in hemorrhage control during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have informed the work of this initiative which exemplifies translation of knowledge back to the homeland to the benefit of the general public.