Mapping AEDs to save lives

ALTHOUGH more automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are being placed in gyms, schools, shopping malls and public buildings, their exact location is often unknown, and their use remains low.

Although automated external defibrillators (AEDs) have become increasingly available in public places, including gyms, schools, office buildings and retail shops, there is no centralised database of their locations, and their use in emergencies remains low, said Raina Merchant, M.D., lead researcher of the study¹ and assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia

As part of the MyHeartMap Challenge², researchers recruited volunteers to use smart phones to locate, photograph and map the location of public AEDs. Participants in a “crowdsourcing” challenge in Philadelphia found 1,400 AEDs in public places, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2012. More than 313 teams and individuals found AEDs in more than 500 buildings throughout Philadelphia. The buildings included gyms (19 per cent), schools (16 per cent) and offices (11 per cent).

Crowdsourcing is when the public conducts tasks traditionally done by a company, individual or a group with special skills.

“Rapid defibrillation is an essential link in the ‘Chain of Survival’ that’s necessary to save cardiac arrest victims. AEDs provide this, but we first need to know where they are,” Dr Merchant said. An estimated one million AEDs have been sold throughout the United States, she added, but because they are not subject to the same FDA regulations as implantable medical devices, the researchers decided to use crowdsourcing to map their location.”

Individuals or teams who located the most AEDs received monetary prizes. Researchers created the contest to investigate whether crowdsourcing is a viable public health surveillance project. Most participants were students or medical professionals, and older people responded more often than younger people.

“When we started, we thought most participants would be younger students, but many of them were over agAir Jordan