Public access defibrillation: the road ahead

Public access defibrillation: the road ahead

From a series in 2012-2013, only 2.3% of all OHCA patients survived to discharge, a rate considered low compared with other developed countries in Asia.1 2 Meanwhile, the survival-to-discharge rate for OHCA in Singapore has doubled over the last 10 years because of the improved emergency medical ser...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hong Kong medical journal = Xianggang yi xue za zhi Vol. 23; no. 6; pp. 554 - 555
Main Author: Siu, A Yc
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: China Hong Kong Academy of Medicine 01-12-2017
Subjects:
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
Councils
CPR
Defibrillators - supply & distribution
E-books
Electric Countershock - instrumentation
Emergency medical care
Good samaritans
Health Services Accessibility
Hong Kong
Humans
Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest - mortality
Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest - therapy
Public access
Public Facilities
Hong Kong China
Singapore
Asia
China
Japan
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Summary:From a series in 2012-2013, only 2.3% of all OHCA patients survived to discharge, a rate considered low compared with other developed countries in Asia.1 2 Meanwhile, the survival-to-discharge rate for OHCA in Singapore has doubled over the last 10 years because of the improved emergency medical services response time and the successful public access defibrillation (PAD) programme.3 Early defibrillation is one of the most important elements in the Chain of Survival.4 Hong Kong has had a PAD programme for more than 20 years although there are no formal statistics for the number of automatic external defibrillators (AEDs). According to an estimation of one of the AED locator mobile app developers, there are approximately 5000 AEDs installed in publicly accessible areas. A local study showed that public knowledge about AEDs was inadequate and fewer than 20% of respondents to a survey would use one.6 The lack of enactment of a Good Samaritan law may not reassure members of the public about possible liability when using an AED, even though they are designed to be operated by a layperson.
Bibliography:SourceType-Other Sources-1
content type line 63
ObjectType-Editorial-2
ObjectType-Commentary-1
ISSN:1024-2708
2226-8707
DOI:10.12809/hkmj175074