author: Ludovico Fassati, Head of Internet of Things Americas, Vodafone.
The cause of cardiac arrest is approximately 20% of all deaths in Europe. In the United States, it causes about 400,000 deaths each year—more than deaths from breast, lung, colon, and prostate cancer combined.
Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) occurs when the heart stops beating unexpectedly. The blood stops flowing to the brain and other vital organs. Before SCA, some people experience chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea, or vomiting. Others just fainted and lost consciousness.Unless used immediately Automatic external defibrillator (AED), The survival rate is very low-only 5-20%.
Little is known about cardiac arrest. So far, apart from believing that a healthy lifestyle seems to reduce risks, we don’t know any effective preventive treatments.But still: a Japanese study Established For every 100,000 marathon runners, 2.18 have an SCA. Since marathon runners are among the healthiest athletes, none of us should think that we are not at risk of cardiac arrest. Age is not necessarily a factor: young people may suffer from SCA.
The facts of SCA are grim, but this is crucial: there is a solution that fits all of us and a device that can save our lives at a cost of less than $500.
AED for each home and office
The way to reduce SCA mortality is to install working automatic external defibrillators in our homes, offices and public places.
AEDs are lightweight devices that can deliver electric shocks to the heart through the chest-and they are very effective. Between January 2005 and March 2017, Japan established a rapid response system for marathon runners in organized events. Under the guidance of the central dispatcher, the nursing staff of the bicycle and walking teams were equipped with automatic external defibrillators to support 1965,265 players to participate in 251 road races between 10.0 and 42.2 kilometers.
Medical staff successfully resuscitated 28 out of 30 runners suffered cardiac arrest Use AED. The remaining two runners who did not survive died because they fell from the crack-they did not use the defibrillator in time.
That’s it: being close to the AED is important-in fact, every second is important. In Japan, marathon runners obtained a 100% survival rate from SCA when they were shocked within 2.2 minutes.
In short, as a research Wording, This is a kind of “lottery”: if you are close to the defibrillator, you can win the lottery, but if the distance is too far, you lose.
Given that it is estimated that 80% of cardiac arrests occur at home, without a home or office defibrillator, everyone may be at risk. In the United States and Europe, AEDs must be placed in many public places by law. On their airplanes with AEDs or in gyms equipped with AEDs, there is a good chance of survival. However, at home or in many offices-most of us have won the lottery.
Unless we can put AEDs in our homes and offices — and make them affordable, interconnected, and highly portable — we will never be able to solve the cardiac arrest problem.
“Connected” count
Many people are looking for new ways to make AEDs more accessible worldwide. For example, Medtech startups in the United States, Heart hero, Started doing this, and then they created Elliot, an automatic external defibrillator. HeartHero has been working on the Elliot project, which is recognized by the American College of Cardiology. What makes this AED unique is that it is rugged, portable, and affordable, because Elliot is a connected device that can communicate with first responders.
When you place the HeartHero Elliot pads on the patient, it analyzes the heart rhythm. Then, it passes the collected information through the AI algorithm and determines whether an electric shock is needed. If needed, the device will automatically provide an electric shock. Thanks to its onboard connection, Elliot can automatically notify emergency services and provide the patient’s GPS location.
For HeartHero-in this case, Vodafone is an important link to these external services, providing much-needed IoT components. With advanced data and global connectivity capabilities, Vodafone is able to provide HeartHero with network connections in more than one hundred countries, which means that Elliot can vacation anywhere in the Maldives, Europe, Australia, etc.
With this IoT component, Elliot’s onboard connection also reduces the barriers to entry into the workplace. Ordinary AED needs to be monitored: Is the battery charged? How about the mat? Automatic monitoring of equipment means that office managers do not have to proactively ensure that the AED is ready. With HeartHero, you can manage one or a thousand machines from one account.
The old model is notorious for equipment failure.In addition, regulations and concerns about legal liability make many Companies that don’t want to have an AED on hand. Connectivity removes this major stumbling block and provides a lot of resources for individuals and businesses around the world.
As companies hope to improve the accessibility of AEDs, it is important to pay attention to the advantages of new technologies such as IoT. Without advanced IoT technology, Elliot will not be able to provide automatic assistance to self-notify emergency services and provide patients’ GPS location, no matter where they are. Elliot is just one example of how IoT technology can help many people.
