Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) can improve the survival rates of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) victims when they are in high-density neighborhoods. The probability of successful bystander defibrillation decreases the further the OHCA victim is to the nearest AED. The aim of our study was to provide visualizations of street distances between OHCAs to the AEDs for optimizing public access defibrillation programs in Slovenia. This is a retrospective observational study that includes data of the OHCAs and AEDs locations and the population density data. The OpenStreetMap database was used to: 1) visualize OHCAs distance street coverage in 100 meters (green) – 250 meters (orange) – 500 meters (red) paths to the AEDs and 2) calculate the median time and walking distance from each OHCA to the nearest AED in the city Celje, Slovenia. There were 158 OHCAs, the majority of which occurred at home (62.8%) and 14 (8.9%) of which there were exact locations for. Overall, an AED was used only 5 times (3.2%) by laypersons. The median distance and walking time from the 16 OHCAs to the nearest AEDs was 1124 meters (IQR: 182.7–6108.3), which we estimate took 16.9 minutes (IQR: 2.7–91.7). Eleven OHCAs (78.6%) were not covered by any of the available AEDs (Figure 1 A) and three OHCAs (21.4%) were covered at the path of 250 and 500 meters (Figure 1 B–C) to the nearest AEDs. The median population density of the OHCAs location was 72.5 people per km2 (IQR: 14–443). The current placement of AEDs in Celje, Slovenia does not cover OHCAs when they occur in most cases. The new recommended visualization of street distance from OHCA to the nearest AED could be used to improve the usability of AEDs in Slovenia.
Figure 1: Examples of uncovered (A) and covered (B, C) OHCAs by AEDs.

Using Street Distance Visualization of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrests to the Nearest Automated External Defibrillators for Optimizing Public Access Defibrillation Program in Slovenia

Implementation of the Guidelines - How do we put the new ERC Guidelines into practice?

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