The American Heart Association joined forces with health technology vendor Philips to launch the "Connected Pulse Program," an effort to increase survival after sudden cardiac arrest.
The Connected Pulse Program aims to promote four critical steps to support a patient suffering from cardiac arrest — alerting emergency medical services, performing CPR, delivering treatment with an automated external defibrillator and providing critical life support — by integrating education, training and technology.
The program will focus on education efforts to teach city residents how to recognize the signs of cardiac arrest and how to subsequently perform CPR. These efforts will include public education campaigns, training kiosks in "high-traffic areas" — such as airports — and telephone programs that remotely connect bystanders with trained dispatch operators.
"When we educate everyone about the life-saving skill of CPR and make AEDs readily available, we increase the chance of survival for all people," said Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association.
The American Heart Association and Philips said they will co-design and manage the programs to meet the needs of specific communities. The organizations plan to announce the first pilot cities participating in the program later this year.