The biggest killer of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) victims is time. Time is the most critical opponent to beat in the event of one, and it’s something that is rather hard to  combat.

Granted, the addition of more defibrillators in schools, offices, public places etc will put defibrillators nearer to victims and therefore reduce the time until treatment, but what more can be done to help SCA victims?

 

Technological input

Technology is constantly getting better. The fact that you’re reading this off a screen, not a letter shows that. Whilst it’s exciting to be close to the realisation of Jetpacks and flying cars, surely we can use technology to make advancements in the medical sector, or even combine current technologies to create life saving ideas and devices? Yep, we can.

 

Defibrillator drone

A German technology non-profit organisation, Definetz, has presented an autonomous octocopter that can carry a defibrillator faster than an ambulance. The target ambulance response time in the UK is 8 minutes and only 73% of vehicles reach this.

Designed mainly for rural areas, where places that equip a defibrillator or hospitals are scarce, this octocopter can apparently travel up to 70 KM/H, and has a range of 10 KM. The idea is that it can be called to a specific set of coordinates, (beamed out automatically by a phone) through and app.

It has been praised by German emergency services, but was followed up with “ We’ll have to see how much these drones can help”

The life saving bracelet

It won’t be long until a wearable bracelet could send an alert to your hospital when you have a heart attack (Or a SCA). This will alert the ambulance service of your whereabouts and help get you to hospital in under the dreaded 5 minutes.

The bracelet could wirelessly hook up to hospital monitoring equipment, whilst you’re on your way, which could find out the problem – a blocked artery, for example. This could then automatically alert  surgeons and book a space in the operating theatre. All of this, wirelessly, without having to press anything, in an vitally short space of time.

Here’s a quick infographic on how it could work: http://gelookahead.economist.com/infograph/the-doctor-will-see-you-now/

 

 

What we’d like to see

There isn’t an abundance of new ideas flying round of how we can make defibrillators more available, so here are some of our homegrown, copyright free, ideas…

 

Intelligent clothing

What if that winter coat you’re probably going to start equipping within the next few weeks could detect when you’re having a SCA and administer a series of shocks whilst simultaneously alerting the emergency services?

As technology improves and revolutionary items become cheap household throwaways over time, it might not be long before such an item could become a seamless small, unnoticeable and inexpensive thing to incorporate into an item of clothing.

 

Bike equipped

The bikes that are available to rent in cities could easily have more of a use than a simple A-B method. With defibrillators equipped in the frame of the bike, it would instantly create hundreds of mobile ambulances.

Sending out a GPS alert to the nearest hospital whenever a defibrillator is detached from it’s receiver could also improve the time it takes for the ambulance service to get to the scene of a SCA.

 

Panic buttons

Half the challenge of getting a defibrillator to someone who needs one is actually knowing where they are. Whilst adding more and more defibrillators in public places around the UK is a sure fire way to help combat the problem of SCA deaths, it is also important to develop a way of alerting people to just where these defibrillators are.

Panic buttons, installed in little information points could be used to point out the nearest available defibrillator, when pressed, in the event of an emergency. They could also be integrated into app, that will point you towards the nearest defib, if you ask it to.

 

What would you do?

Given the freedom of imagination, the advancement of technology and a life-saving defibrillator – what would you combine to make defibrillators more accessible? We’d love to hear your ideas!

Buy your defibrillators through Direct365.

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