Overcoming Spatial and Temporal Barriers to Public Access Defibrillators Via Optimization

Access to medicines - overcoming the barriers.

Overcoming the Barriers to Greater Public Engagement

The concept of public engagement (PE) in science has evolved steadily over the last thirty years. Early PE activities were often delivered didactically in a one-way flow of information, largely built on the belief that if only the public were told about science, then deficiencies in their understanding could be corrected, and support for scientific funding would improve [1]. Over time, PE has b...

Identifying locations for public access defibrillators using mathematical optimization.

BACKGROUND Geospatial methods using mathematical optimization to identify clusters of cardiac arrests and prioritize public locations for defibrillator deployment have not been studied. Our objective was to develop such a method and test its performance against a population-guided approach. METHODS AND RESULTS All public location cardiac arrests in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, from December 16, ...

Overcoming low-income and language barriers to access.

Time to Shock vs. Voice Prompt Duration: Optimization of Defibrillators for Public Access and Home Deployment

The time interval from onset of ventricular fibrillation (VF) to successful defibrillation shock has been identified as a primary correlate to survival. Widespread deployment of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) for public access defibrillation (PAD) and home use offers the potential of reducing this interval by minutes. Unfortunately, studies have reported that a significant percentage ...