Automatic external defibrillators
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Inappropriate administration of shocks by untrained good Samaritans "have not been a problem because the devices contain sophisticated rhythm-detection algorithms," an editorial accompanying an Oct. 17 New England Journal of Medicine study on public AED use comments. "Without federal deregulation, the current requirements for prescription, oversight and formal training are major roadblocks." The two-year, observational study suggested that AEDs in well-marked public areas at Chicago airports were effectively used to treat cardiac arrest...