iRescU - Data for Social Good Saving Lives Bridging the Gaps in Sudden Cardiac Arrest Survival

Reading time: 6 minute
...

📝 Abstract

Currently every day in the USA 1000 people die of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) outside of hospitals or ambulances - before emergency medical help arrives - in the streets, workplaces, schools and homes of our cities, adults and children. Brain death commences in 3 minutes, and often the ambulance just can’t be there in time. Citizen cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) use can save precious minutes and lives. Using public access AED’s saves lives in SCA- however AEDs are used in <2% of cardiac arrests, though could save lives in 80% if available, findable, functioning, and used. The systems problem to solve is that there is no comprehensive or real time accessible database of the AED locations, and also it is not known that they are actually being positioned where they are needed. The iRescU project is designed to bridge this gap in SCA survival, by substantially augmenting the AED database. Utilizing a combination of AED crowd sourcing and geolocation integrated with existing 911 services and SCA events and projected events based on machine learning data information to help make the nearest AED accessible and available in the setting of a SCA emergency and to identify the areas of greatest need for AEDs to be positioned in the community. Helping to save lives and address preventable death with a social good approach and applied big data.

💡 Analysis

Currently every day in the USA 1000 people die of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) outside of hospitals or ambulances - before emergency medical help arrives - in the streets, workplaces, schools and homes of our cities, adults and children. Brain death commences in 3 minutes, and often the ambulance just can’t be there in time. Citizen cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) use can save precious minutes and lives. Using public access AED’s saves lives in SCA- however AEDs are used in <2% of cardiac arrests, though could save lives in 80% if available, findable, functioning, and used. The systems problem to solve is that there is no comprehensive or real time accessible database of the AED locations, and also it is not known that they are actually being positioned where they are needed. The iRescU project is designed to bridge this gap in SCA survival, by substantially augmenting the AED database. Utilizing a combination of AED crowd sourcing and geolocation integrated with existing 911 services and SCA events and projected events based on machine learning data information to help make the nearest AED accessible and available in the setting of a SCA emergency and to identify the areas of greatest need for AEDs to be positioned in the community. Helping to save lives and address preventable death with a social good approach and applied big data.

📄 Content

1 iRescU – Data for Social Good Saving Lives Bridging the Gaps in Sudden Cardiac Arrest Survival-
Harnessing Crowd Sourcing, Geolocation and Big Data for Social Good

Nadine Levick
EMS Safety Foundation New York City, NY, USA nlevick@attglobal.net

ABSTRACT Currently every day in the USA 1000 people die of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) outside of hospitals or ambulances - before emergency medical help arrives -
in the streets, workplaces, schools and homes of our cities, adults and children. Brain death commences in 3 minutes, and often the ambulance just can’t be there in time. Citizen cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) use can save precious minutes and lives. Using public access AED’s saves lives in SCA- however AEDs are used in <2% of cardiac arrests, though could save lives in 80% if available, findable, functioning, and used. The systems problem to solve is that there is no comprehensive or real time accessible database of the AED locations, and also it is not known that they are actually being positioned where they are needed. The iRescU project is designed to bridge this gap in SCA survival, by substantially augmenting the AED database. Utilizing a combination of AED crowd sourcing and geolocation integrated with existing 911 services and SCA events and projected events based on machine learning data information to help make the nearest AED accessible & available in the setting of a SCA emergency and to identify the areas of greatest need for AEDs to be positioned in the community. Helping to save lives and address preventable death with a social good approach and applied big data. 1.INTRODUCTION: BACKGROUND TO THE PROJECT PROBLEM – SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST AND AED GEOLOCATION Social good applications are often highly interdisciplinary in nature and usually require close collaboration between diverse disciplines, technical IT practitioners, subject matter experts, and social sector experts. The optimization of sudden cardiac arrest management and its systems engineering embodies this concept.
First of all, what is a SCA? It is when the heart suddenly stops pumping effectively and/or begins fibrillating or quivering and there is no effective circulation of blood and the victim rapidly loses consciousness, collapses and becomes unresponsive. Brain death commences within 3 minutes unless CPR is commenced and an AED used. However, the sad fact remains that despite major advances in technology, data management, machine learning, acute health care and emergency medical services – sudden cardiac arrest survival has hardly improved in the past 30 years across the nation. In the field of public safety, public health, community outreach and social good addressing this existing problem of survival of sudden cardiac arrest is truly a systems engineering challenge.
Of the 1000 people who die each day in the setting of an out of hospital cardiac arrest in the USA, sadly, there is a less than 2% utilization of AEDs. This is even though there is a predicted potential 80% survival rate with use of an AED in the first few minutes after a SCA, as ~80% of SCAs may have a reversible shockable rhythm with use of an AED. However, currently in the USA, for the vast majority of cardiac arrests the nearest location of a public access AED is not known. While there are estimated to be ~1 million AEDs in the USA, fewer than 10% devices exist in any database. Current average survival rates in the USA after SCA are one tenth of that 80% figure – around 8%. In the New York metro region where this pilot is being developed, cardiac arrest survival rates are amongst the lowest in the country – less than 5%. Out of hospital SCA is a major problem both nationally and in the target region for this preliminary project, with annual deaths that are over ten times those of the annual road toll.
Whilst vast resources are expended on numerous complex public safety initiatives and infrastructure such as road safety – the data management dimensions of bridging the gaps in the system of SCA survival are in need of optimization and a paradigm shift. There are gaps in process and key information regarding: performing CPR, capture and validation of AED location, the AED functionality and accessibility and utilization of AEDs. A comprehensive, reliable, dynamic and easily accessible national AED geolocation database has yet to be created. The goal of our project is to pilot a sustainable and inexpensive geolocated AED database augmented by using new communication technologies, such as social media, QR codes, the cloud and machine learning.
Integrating the complex data of where AEDs are currently located, their functionality and accessibility, real time access to this data in a SCA emergency, both by the 911 system and the bystander public, and information on SCA event geolocation for the deployment of add

This content is AI-processed based on ArXiv data.

Start searching

Enter keywords to search articles

↑↓
ESC
⌘K Shortcut