U.S. Government Legislation, Regulations Driving Rapid Expansion of AED Market-Federal Office of Management and Budget Urges 'Lifesaving Action' Be Taken by Regulators
PR NEWSWIRE, 12/19/2001 3:30:00 AM
IRVINE, Calif., Dec 19, 2001 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- New government legislation that mandates the use of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and provides funding for their deployment is on the rise. The legislation aimed at increasing the chances of survival of cardiac arrest victims, the number one killer of Americans accounting for over 465,000 deaths each year, is effectively expanding the AED market and leading to an acceleration in AED orders for public and government workplaces all around the nation, according to Cardiac Science Inc. (Nasdaq: DFIB), manufacturer of the Survivalink(R) AED.
Even the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has jumped into the regulatory fray by issuing a highly unusual "prompt letter" that encouraged the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to quickly initiate new regulations that would mandate placing AEDs in the nation's workplaces. OSHA responded this week by issuing a Technical Information Bulletin and information resource outlining the potential benefits of workplace AED Programs.
According to a letter from Assistant Secretary of Labor John Henshaw, who administers OSHA, employers should be made more aware of this important lifesaving technology and that the Agency will distribute this information to more than 125 trade, professional and union organizations as well as feature the benefits of AEDs on their website. These documents can be accessed via the Internet at osha.gov . These guidelines are to convey the benefits of making AEDs available in the workplace and to point employers towards the resources necessary to develop such programs.
A host of AED-related bills, currently being introduced at the federal level and in state governments across the nation, will likely have a positive impact on Frost and Sullivan's annual AED market projections that currently range from $140 million in 2000 to $650 million in 2006. The first of the bills, the Cardiac Arrest Survival Act, which directed the placement of AEDs in federal buildings around the nation, was signed by President Clinton in November 2000. A companion bill, the Rural Access to Emergency Devices Act, authorized $25 million in federal funds to help rural communities purchase AEDs and to provide training in how to use them.
More recently, the Community Access to Emergency Defibrillation Act of 2001 was introduced into the House of Representatives this month. Authored by Lois Capps, D-Calif and John Shimkus, R-Ill., the bill earmarks $55 million a year for five years for communities to buy AEDs and establish access to defibrillation programs. A companion and identical bill was introduced in the Senate by Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. and William Frist, R-Tenn.
Representatives Capps and Shimkus have also introduced in the House a bill the provides guidance and resources to schools for public access to defibrillation programs -- the Automatic Defibrillators in Adams Memory Act.
Cardiac Science, Inc. President and CEO Raymond W. Cohen said the education of the public and the exposure to the concept of public access defibrillators has been given an enormous boost by the recent spate of governmental actions in this area.
"From a commercial standpoint, this regulatory activity expands our market and is obviously good news," said Cohen. "We are also encouraged that legislators at the state and Federal level have come to recognize the fact that public access defibrillation is among the most important public health topics of this decade. We applaud these and future actions aimed at improving public safety."
About Sudden Cardiac Arrest and AEDs
Cardiac arrest takes a tremendous toll on the American public, killing more than 450,000 people annually. Defibrillation is the only effective treatment for sudden cardiac arrest. Currently, a person who suffers sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital has only around a 5 percent chance of surviving.
Ninety percent of cardiac arrest victims who are treated with a defibrillator within one minute of arrest can be saved, but every minute after the initial onset that a person goes without treatment decreases their chance of survival by 10 percent. At this time, however, few communities have programs to make emergency defibrillation widely accessible to cardiac arrest victims.
AEDs have a 97 percent success rate in terminating ventricular fibrillation, yet fewer than half of the nation's ambulance services, less than 15 percent of emergency service fire units, and less than 2 percent of police vehicles are equipped with AEDs.
A study of Seattle's defibrillator program observed a 30 percent survival rate. Another study, conducted in casinos in Las Vegas has shown that the implementation of a successful public access defibrillation program has achieved survival rates as high as 74 percent if patients received defibrillation within 3 minutes. When American Airlines installed AEDs aboard its aircraft, the survival rate for patients receiving defibrillation rose to 40 percent. Other successful programs include the "First Responder Defibrillator Program," in Boston. Under this program, Boston Emergency Medical Services provides free CPR and AED training to any company that purchases a defibrillator. Since the program was launched, 5,000 people have been trained, AEDs have been placed in over 90 locations throughout the city, and the cardiac arrest survival rate has doubled. In another successful program, the Rochester, MN police became the first police department in the country equipped with AEDs. Since then, cardiac arrest survival rates in Rochester have increased by over 40 percent.
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