In sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), prompt defibrillation with an AED can save a life. The problem is that although some 1 million AEDs have been sold in the United States, there is no comprehensive list of where they all are—which can prevent dispatchers from directing bystanders and would-be rescuers to the devices. [For more on this, see Research Monitor.]
To locate AEDs in the Philadelphia area, Penn researchers came up with a clever strategy: a contest that challenged members of the public to hunt for public-access defibrillators, snap a photo of them and then send in location information. The winner of the contest, which ran during February and March, would receive a $10,000 prize.
More than 350 teams and individuals participated, locating more than 1,500 AEDs in about 800 businesses, rec centers, schools and museums. The winners, Jennifer Yuan, an information technology analyst, and Jack Creighton, a high school athletic director, each located more than 400 AEDs, so the researchers decided to give each a $9,000 prize.
Initially, researchers thought contest participants might use social media to encourage Facebook friends or Twitter followers to offer up AED locations. But the winners found the devices using more traditional means: They pounded the pavement, went door to door and, even though they were sometimes met with suspicion, talked their way into businesses and other facilities.
Researchers are validating the information and using it to create a database of AEDs that will be available to the public, dispatchers and other responders.
Read more at www.med.upenn.edu/myheartmap.
Doctor Weighs in Against Out-of-Hospital CPR
George Lundberg, M.D., editor at large for MedPage Today, caused a stir in June when he wrote a column blasting the “culture of resuscitation,” or the push to get bystanders to do CPR, claiming it is basically pointless. He cited a Japanese study, published in JAMA on March 21, that involved more than 400,000 people; the study found that while 18 percent of those who were given out-of-hospital CPR and epinephrine achieved spontaneous circulation, fewer than 5 percent survived to one month and less than 2 percent had “good to moderate” brain function. “So, if an average adult keels over in the street, is found unresponsive and pulseless by a bystander, and is administered CPR while a 911 call is made, the odds that such a person will emerge from the eventualities of the resuscitation effort healthy and with a normally functioning brain are about 2%,” he wrote.
His conclusion? “If I drop dead on the street, observed or unobserved, I suppose the observer will feel obligated to call 911, but PLEASE do not administer closed chest cardiac massage to me.”
The reaction among readers was swift. Survivors of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest wrote about getting to see their children grow up after being saved by CPR and an AED. Another reader called the physician “irresponsible for discouraging the public from doing CPR,” while another pointed out that there are areas where success rates are much higher. Yet a few supported his conclusions, including a woman taking care of a husband who was revived but left brain-damaged after an SCA.
Lundberg has been a controversial figure. A pathologist, he was fired as editor of JAMA several years ago. According to news reports, he sued over his dismissal and received an undisclosed settlement.
Read the opinion piece at medpagetoday.com/Columns/At-Large/33114.
ZOLL Appoints First Medical Director
Greg Mears, M.D., has taken a newly created position at ZOLL Medical Corp. in Broomfield, Colo., as medical director of the data management products division. In his new role, Mears will provide guidance on designing products that use data to improve clinical and operational excellence, according to a company news release.
Mears was the principal investigator for the National EMS Information System (NEMSIS) and has served on its advisory board since 2011. He was also principal investigator on the National EMS Assessment, the most comprehensive analysis to date of the nation’s EMS and 911 systems. Most recently, he was an associate professor of emergency medicine and director of the EMS Performance Improvement Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as North Carolina state EMS medical director.
California DOT Launches Website to Help Helicopter Pilots Find Hospitals
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has launched a website to help helicopter EMS services locate the 150 heliport-equipped hospitals across California. “Until now, emergency responders had no single source of information for the locations and capabilities of these heliports,” said Acting Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty in a news release. “This new website provides critical information at a time when every second counts.”
Helicopter EMS pilots will have quick online access to hospital heliports and the type of emergency services each hospital provides. “It’s a great resource for any air medical organization,” says John Mitchell, Redding Reach Air Medical Services base lead pilot. “It reduces pilots’ stress levels by familiarizing them with different hospitals’ helipads and also gives a birds-eye view of each hospital’s location and area.”
The Hospital Heliport website, which went live in March, was developed by Caltrans in cooperation with the State EMS Authority, EMS operators and other stakeholders. Emergency responders can zoom into county or regional views and select information about a particular heliport; information includes geographic coordinates, trauma center level and the heliport’s proximity to nearby cities and major roads. The site also provides aerial photographs depicting authorized flight paths, and heliport data such as dimensions, lighting, elevation, and helicopter size and weight limits.
“Air ambulance services make it possible to transport the most severely injured and sickest patients from distant locations to medical centers that have the needed expertise,” says Howard Backer, M.D., director of the California EMS Authority. “Providing hospital landing site information online ensures that air ambulance providers have ready access to accurate information on receiving facilities’ landing sites to improve flight safety.”
Visit the website at dot.ca.gov/hq/planning/aeronaut/dataplates.html.
Ambulance Companies Transport Injured Pets to Vets
If Rocky gets run over or Daisy goes into diabetic shock, a new breed of ambulance company may come to the rescue. Around the nation, animal-loving entrepreneurs have launched EMS for pets, often repurposing ambulances that once carried people for use in transporting sick or injured animals to veterinary clinics. Some founders started their companies after hearing about pet owners who called 911 because of a sick pet, only to find out EMS is only for human patients, according to a recent article in Veterinary Practice News.
A.M.E.R.S. Animal Ambulance in San Leandro, Calif., which was started 10 years ago by a former EMT/paramedic, charges $200 and transports pets for reasons including being hit by cars, stroke, attacks by other animals or simply being too heavy for owners to lift.
Human EMS providers, look at it this way: At least if you see a pet ambulance cruising the streets of your town, it isn’t competing with you for business.
