In recent years, automated external defibrillators (AEDs) have become more common in public spaces such as movie theaters, shopping malls and restaurants. But survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest remain between 8 and 10 percent.
Three researchers in Sweden have a new way to hasten defibrillation for those in need: drones.
Led by Andreas Claesson, RN, PhD, with the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, the team sent a GPS-enabled drone to a specific location where a previous cardiac arrest incident had occurred. They then compared the response times with that of the emergency medical services.
In all 18 flights, the drone reached the destination more quickly than the ambulance, averaging a reduction in travel time of 16.5 minutes.
"This is a really neat, innovative method to combat a problem that we have been struggling with for decades," said Michael Kurz, MD, an emergency medicine professor and American Heart Association volunteer. "It's the same reason we have public access to defibrillation. Airports, casinos, large public venues have AEDs on the wall because presumably it would take a while for EMS to get there. This is, like, public-access defibrillation on steroids, where we just bring the defibrillator to you."
The researchers described their findings related to drone delivery of AEDs in a letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Nicholas joined TriMed in 2016 as the managing editor of the Chicago office. After receiving his master’s from Roosevelt University, he worked in various writing/editing roles for magazines ranging in topic from billiards to metallurgy. Currently on Chicago’s north side, Nicholas keeps busy by running, reading and talking to his two cats.