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TECHNOLOGY Thursday 15 June 2017

Drones carrying defibrillators could aid heart emergencies

By LINDSEY TANNER serve summer vacation-
AP Medical Writer ers. The analysis found
CHICAGO (AP) — It an emergency response
sounds futuristic: drones time of almost 30 min-
carrying heart defibrilla- utes and a survival rate
tors swooping in to help of zero, said lead author
bystanders revive peo- Andreas Claesson, a re-
ple stricken by cardiac searcher at the Center
arrest. for Resuscitation Science
Researchers tested the at Karolinska Institute in
idea and found drones Stockholm.
arrived at the scene of To see if care could be
18 cardiac arrests with- improved, Claesson’s
in about 5 minutes of team turned to drones.
launch. That was almost Drones are increasingly
17 minutes faster on av- being tested or used in
erage than ambulances a variety of settings, in-
— a big deal for a con- cluding to deliver retail
dition where minutes goods to consumers in
mean life or death. remote areas, search
Drone-delivered devic- for lost hikers and help
es weren’t used on pa- police monitor traffic or
tients in the preliminary crowds.
study, but the results are Using them to speed
“pretty remarkable” and medical care seemed
proof that the idea is like a logical next step,
worth exploring, said Dr. Claesson said.
Clyde Yancy, a former The study was done last
American Heart Associa- October and was pub-
tion president who was lished Tuesday in the
not involved in the study. Journal of the American This Friday, Sept. 6, 2013, file photo shows a drone at a testing site in Lincoln, Neb. An experimental
Cardiac arrest is a lead- Medical Association. study in Sweden suggests drones equipped with heart defibrillators could help with response times
ing cause of death More than 350,000 for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
worldwide, killing more Americans had a cardi-
than 6 million people ac arrest in a nonmedi- and use of a defibrillator. then lands gently in a He plans a follow-up
each year. Most hap- cal setting last year, the The researchers used backyard. A man dashes study to test drone-deliv-
pen at home or in other American Heart Associa- a small heart defibrilla- out of the house, grabs ered defibrillators for by-
nonmedical settings and tion says. The condition tor weighing less than the defibrillator and car- standers to use in real-life
most is often confused with two pounds, featuring ries it inside. cardiac arrests.
gy chief at Northwest- heart attacks but they’re an electronic voice that There were no crashes or The test results show “a
ern University’s medical different. gives instructions on how other mishaps during the great potential for sav-
school in Chicago. Heart attacks occur to use the device. study, Claesson said. ing lives,” he said.q
The researchers reached when a clot or other It was attached to a
the same conclusion af- blockage stops blood small drone equipped
ter analyzing cardiac flow to the heart. Car- with four small propel-
arrest data in Sweden, diac arrest occurs when ler-like rotors, a global
focusing on towns near electrical impulses con- positioning device and
Stockholm that don’t trolling the heart’s rhyth- camera.
have enough emerge- mic pumping action They launched the
patients don’t survive. suddenly malfunction. drone from a fire station
“Ninety percent of peo- The heartbeat becomes within about 6 miles (10
ple who collapse outside very irregular or stops, kilometers) from homes
of a hospital don’t make preventing blood from where people had pre-
it. This is a crisis and it’s reaching vital organs. vious cardiac arrests.
time we do something Death can occur within In the study’s video foot-
different to address it,” minutes without treat- age simulating a res-
said Yancy, cardioloncy ment to restore a normal cue, a drone soars over
medical resources to heartbeat, ideally CPR residential rooftops and