SAN FRANCISCOー Avive Solutions, Inc, a company bringing to market a revolutionary connected platform comprised of a next-generation connected Automated External Defibrillator (AED) and first of it’s kind software system designed to improve response to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) emergencies, today announced the City of Jackson, Tennessee as its first Partner Community for the Company’s 4-Minute City (4MC) Program.
For the 4MC Program, leaders in Jackson, including non-profit Friends of Heart (a fund of West Tennessee Healthcare Foundation), West Tennessee Healthcare, and the City of Jackson Fire Department are partnering with Avive Solutions, Inc. to implement the Company’s comprehensive hardware + software platform solution, with the goal of improving OHCA outcomes by enabling a more connected system of response in the City of Jackson.
“Our mission is to make sure we have the best quality heart and vascular care in West Tennessee,” said Tracy Case, Executive Director of Friends of Heart. “So it was an easy decision to work with our local public safety and healthcare leaders to make a strong push to partner with Avive on bringing the 4-Minute City Program to Jackson.”
Generally, Avive’s 4MC Program aims to tackle the enormous healthcare challenge of OHCA in communities by:
1. Strategically deploying a significant number of Avive’s connected AEDs, coupled with implementing the Company’s comprehensive response solution - which has the potential to help:
- Get AEDs where they are needed, when they are needed by empowering bystander response
- Share the right data at the right time with public safety and healthcare provider stakeholders that play a key role in the chain of survival
2. Cultivating a culture of response to OHCA emergencies in Jackson through significant community CPR/AED use education and training efforts so citizens are ready to step up when it matters most to deliver early intervention
According to data shared by public safety and health system leaders in Jackson, ~6% of OHCA victims in the City survive to hospital discharge — which is slightly below the national average of ~10%. These outcomes have driven community leaders in Jackson to look for ways to improve upon their status quo, and they view the 4MC Program as an opportunity to head in the right direction.
“It’s an honor to be one of the first Communities to Partner with Avive on their innovative 4-Minute City Program,” shared Deputy Chief Don Friddle from the Jackson Fire Department. “Those of us who have been in this business a while recognize how Avive’s new technology will revolutionize the efforts of saving lives from cardiac arrest emergencies.”
When diving deeper into Jackson’s OHCA data, Chief Friddle shared that the community’s public safety and health system leaders found that residents who live in lower-income areas in the City clearly face significant disparities in the prevalence of cardiac arrest, as well as poor outcomes - a challenge that Jackson and Avive’s other Partner 4MC Communities are eager to address through this Program.
“Data analysis proves that lower income areas of our city have a significantly higher number of cardiac arrest occurrences”, Friddle said. “That’s unacceptable to me and the rest of our City and healthcare leaders”.
While Avive’s connected AEDs will be deployed throughout all parts of Jackson, Chief Friddle says that a targeted deployment will put the devices in areas where they can do the most good for the most people. “We know our lower-income areas have a much higher percentage of Sudden Cardiac Arrest occurrences and our goal is to ensure people in these areas have quick access to these life-saving devices,” says Friddle.
The targeted deployment strategy will leverage historical cardiac arrest data to focus on putting AEDs in known high-risk public locations, and even in the hands of trained citizens within high-risk areas of the community.
“Our goal is to create a network of life-saving devices and trained residents that have a passion for helping their neighbors survive should a cardiac arrest event occur. Neighbors helping neighbors, that’s what it is all about”, says Friddle.
Friends of Heart, a Fund of the West Tennessee Healthcare Foundation, intends to fund a majority of the hundreds of AEDs that Jackson plans to deploy as part of the 4MC Program, following Avive’s AED receiving FDA approval.
According to Deann Thelen, CEO of Jackson-Madison County General Hospital (flagship hospital of the West Tennessee Healthcare System), the benefits of the 4MC Program don’t stop in the pre-hospital setting, but also have the potential to extend into the downstream advanced care that is provided at the hospital.
When asked why West Tennessee Healthcare is excited about the Program, Thelen shared that, “This new technology has the potential to help us when cardiac arrest patients arrive at our hospital to know more about what happened in the pre-hospital setting. Right now, these patients can arrive at the hospital, we often only get a verbal report about what people “think” happened before EMS arrival. This new system can provide real data from these cardiac arrest emergencies from before EMS arriving on-scene. Our doctors are very excited and feel this is a game changer. They believe this will definitely be another tool to help save lives.
While Avive’s AED is in the FDA review cycle and has not yet been approved for sale in the U.S, cities and counties have expressed great interest in adopting this solution when it’s available via Avive’s 4-Minute City Program. Many cities and counties, such as Jackson, are in the process of planning the implementation of Avive’s platform technology such that they are ready to deploy following the Avive AED receiving FDA approval.
“We are excited to announce Jackson, TN as our first Partner Community for the 4-Minute City Program,” said Sameer Jafri, President of Avive Solutions, Inc. “It’s clear that the community, public safety, and healthcare leaders in Jackson are all determined to build a comprehensive system of care to improve cardiac arrest outcomes, and we are thrilled to partner with them on this noble effort. In the months ahead, we look forward to announcing our growing list of 4-Minute City Partner Communities who share a similar determination.”