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Biotech / Medical : Cardiac Science Inc. DFIB (NASDAQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Marc Phelan who wrote (72)	3/25/2002 9:00:00 PM
From: Harry J.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 174

Thread - Washington Post article re: public defibrillator study appeared Monday, 25 March on page B2 (Metro section). Online reference (good for 14 days, I think): washingtonpost.com No mention of any companies, but we should know the results of the study in about a year. Regards, Harry J. Here's what it said: [quoting, except for bracketed material which is mine-] washingtonpost.com UPDATE On the News Monday, March 25, 2002; Page B02 Defibrillator Study Underway A clinical trial is underway in 24 cities, including the District [of Columbia], to determine whether automated external defibrillators -- devices that shock stopped hearts back to life -- should be standard emergency equipment for busy public places. When hooked to a person whose heart has stopped, defibrillator software detects whether the heart rhythm can be set right with an electric shock and then administers the jolt if needed. Shocks are not called for in most heart attacks, because the heart continues beating, and the patient does not lose consciousness. Forty-two sites in the District [of Columbia, and I suppose a comparable number in the other cities] were selected for the federally funded study, and 31 are in service. The remaining 11 sites await the training of volunteers, which officials hope to complete soon. The locations include all Smithsonian Institution facilities, a number of Metro subway stations, 10 senior centers and several apartment buildings. Across the nation, more than 1,000 sites are included in the trial, and researchers expect 600 treatable cardiac events at all sites during the project, which will end next year. Only sites with 24-hour security workers to operate the machines were eligible. To compare the effectiveness of the devices with other rescue methods, half the sites will be covered by workers with defibrillators who are trained to follow up their shocks with CPR. The rest of the sites will have CPR-trained workers without defibrillators. Volunteers at all sites will be periodically retrained throughout the research. Study results -- awaited by the rapidly growing defibrillator industry -- will be reported the following summer. The research is to find the best way to increase the odds of surviving cardiac arrest -- an event that researchers say usually results in death if not treated with CPR or with a defibrillator -- especially in large cities, where rescue crews are slowed by traffic, elevators and a high volume of calls. The D.C. cardiac arrest "save rate" outside hospitals is estimated at 1 percent, according to doctors. Nationally, the rate is 5 to 7 percent, and experts have theorized that defibrillators and CPR can do twice as well as CPR alone, said Mary Ann McBurnie, the trial's national project director at the University of Washington. The program has trained 17,000 volunteers and begun collecting data under a $13 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and a $9 million donation of equipment from defibrillator makers, McBurnie said. "We need a large trial to demonstrate the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of this treatment," she said. "The public-access defibrillator study is the only thing out there that will do that." -- Avram Goldstein