Community Response and Drone Technology to Improve Outcomes from Rural and Remote Cardiac Arrest: The future is here!

Recorded Friday, April 23, 2021

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Webinar Description

While it has been shown that bystander interventions can improve survival from OHCA, rates of bystander CPR and AED usage remain depressingly low in many communities. Most reported rates of bystander CPR are below 40% and have been reported to be as low as 10% in some places. Many communities continue to focus on increasing the number of people trained in CPR and the placement of more AEDs, hoping this will translate into higher rates of bystander CPR and AED use.

However, for the most part, this has not been the case. As rates of bystander intervention remain low, it appears these strategies, in isolation, may not be as effective as previously thought. One shortcoming with increasing the number of public AEDs, is that three quarters of cardiac arrests occur in private locations where public access AEDs are unavailable. Novel strategies are required to improve bystander intervention and decrease the time to defibrillation in private locations.Our presentation will highlight the impact of new cutting edge use of community responders and drone technology to improve time to first shock in not only rural and remote communities but also in private locations illustrating the concept of private access defibrillation.

About the Presenter

Dr. Sheldon Cheskes

Associate Professor, University of Toronto

Dr. Sheldon Cheskes is an Associate Professor with the Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, and a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is the Medical Director for the Regions of Halton and Peel with the Sunnybrook Centre for Prehospital Medicine. He is one of the principal investigators for the Canadian Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (CanROC) and is a recognized international authority in the area of CPR quality and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation. Dr. Cheskes has published over 100 manuscripts in high impact journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, CMAJ and Resuscitation that have changed resuscitation practice around the world.

He was the principal investigator for the recently completed FIRST study, exploring the impact of remote ischemic conditioning to reduce reperfusion injury in ST- elevation myocardial infarction, and is the principal investigator of the DOuble Sequential External Defibrillation in Refractory Ventricular Fibrillation (DOSE VF) trial. This study will be the first cluster randomized trial to clinically evaluate two novel therapeutic defibrillation strategies (double sequential external defibrillation and vector change defibrillation) against standard practice for patients remaining in refractory ventricular fibrillation during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. He is also studying methods to improve public access defibrillation in rural and remote areas through the use of community responder programs and drone delivery of automated external defibrillators.

About the Presenter

Paul Snobelen

Community Safety & Resuscitation Program Specialist, Peel Regional Paramedic Services

Paul Snobelen, Community Safety & Resuscitation Program Specialist, and a crisis and trauma responder for Peel Regional Paramedic Services in Ontario Canada who is responsible for pre-paramedic community-based programs. Overseeing one of Canada’s largest PAD Programs, a volunteer community responder program and developed a Paramedic service led “Lay Responder Support Program” and actively involved in research innovations to improve cardiac arrest outcomes through the use of community responders and drone technology. Paul’s primary focus is on increasing the propensity of lay responder action to improve pre-paramedic care and supporting people after acting to save a life.

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