Using Drones to Deliver AEDs in Cardiac Arrest

Minutes count during a cardiac arrest, and a recent simulated emergency trial showed that drones could carry external defibrillators to heart attack victims much faster than ambulances, according to a paper recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Each year in the United States, more than 350,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of the hospital and are attended by emergency medical services, according to the American Heart Association. Cardiac arrest may be reversed if CPR is performed and a defibrillator is used to shock the heart and restore a normal rhythm within a few minutes, making any system that can deliver care more quickly of interest to the medical community.
In this simulation, a drone carried an automated external defibrillator (AED) to rural locations where, in theory, a bystander could detach the device and use it on a cardiac arrest victim. The drone used in the experiment, developed in Sweden, was equipped with a global positioning system (GPS), a high-definition camera and autopilot software. Two licensed pilots sent GPS coordinates and routes to the drone and the entire flight was autonomous.

Reference: Simulation Shows Promise for Drone Use in Cardiac Arrest from the AARP website, http://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2017/drones-could-deliver-aeds-fd.html