In the United States there are roughly 350,000 cardiac arrests each year, and in Europe nearly a million people each year suffer such cardiac arrests. And, each minute to health care and a defibrillator is critical to survival. Today, people outside of hospitals who have a heart attack have only an 8-10% survival rate due to the slow response time of emergency services. This calls for a new solution to this critical health issue: drones.
Drones can help save lives of heart attack victims by delivering defibrillators remotely, much faster than it takes an ambulance to arrive on the scene. In a recent study in Sweden, the Swedish Transportation Agency equipped drones with light-weight defibrillators (1.7 pounds) and deployed them from fire stations north of Stockholm.
In tests, drones can average 100 km/hour, making the average arrival time of the drones 5:21 minutes; this is compared to the average ambulance arrival time of 22:00 minutes, shaving more than 16 minutes off defibrillator arrival time. Time that is critical to a person’s survival. When not flying, the drone can be folded and become a tool box for emergency supplies.
Drones to the rescue!
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Discuss the use of new technologies such as drones with students.
- Show video: https://youtu.be/y-rEI4bezWc
- Divide students into team: What other applications could drones have in the marketplace and health care industry?
- Have each team share its recommendations.
- Select the top recommendation. Have students develop a marketing program for this solution using drones.
Source: Los Angeles Times, Tribune, other news source
