Fast, Hot and Ready: Penn Experts Deliver CPR to Your Door

 

In the U.S. each year, over300,000 adults will suffer a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). More than 90 percentof these victims will die before they reach the hospital, but immediate CPR candouble or triple a victim’s chance of survival. Anyone can learn CPR, yet70 percent of Americans either don’t know how to administer CPR or theirtraining has significantly lapsed.
 
Research has also shown dramatic disparities in CPR training and SCA survivalamong different racial and ethnic groups. A large study recently published inthe New England Journal of Medicine specifically looked at disparitiesin care related to cardiac arrest across the country. Data from 29 U.S. siteswere analyzed, with the finding that low-income African-Americans were muchless likely to receive bystander CPR when compared to their high-incomeCaucasian counterparts. A separate study found that up to 76 percent of AfricanAmerican study participants did not know where they could get CPR training.Study participants also cited additional barriers to learning CPR, includingthe amount of time the training takes, cost, and ability to access locationswhere the courses are held.
 
That’s why experts from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School ofMedicine with support of a sponsorship by The Travelers Companies, Inc.,have teamed up with the American Heart Association, Hartford area hospitals,community-based organizations and the City of Hartford to launch aninnovative community project to bring CPR training to the public at no cost.The new two-year program, The Mobile CPR Project – Hartford, will focus onlocal communities with low rates of CPR training, using a proctoredpresentation including a video and instructional kit that teaches CPR in lessthan 30 minutes.
 
By making the free training mobile, the program coordinators are hoping to makeit easier than ever for members of the public to learn how to recognize acardiac arrest and begin CPR immediately in an emergency.
 
“By reducing barriers to CPR training, we hope to highlight a new model forpublic training in CPR, a model in which certification is de-emphasized andlearning the lifesaving skills of chest compressions are paramount,” saidprogram collaborator Benjamin Abella, MD, vice chair of research in the Department of Emergency Medicine and clinical research director in the Centerfor Resuscitation Science at Penn.
 
During the kick-off event held last week, participants at Hartford City Halllearned CPR and received a free American Heart Association Family &Friends® CPR Anytime® Personal Learning Program training kit, which includes aCPR skills practice DVD and CPR learning manikin. Participants ranged frommembers of the public to city police and rescue workers.
 
“The kick-off was a terrific event – great energy, enthusiastic participants. We’re off to a great start with a very innovative program to bring thislifesaving training to a broader segment of the public,” Abella said.
 
The program will officially launch in the fall, with a team that will performregular training events throughout Hartford via a mobile CPR training station,bringing classes directly to community centers, churches, and places ofemployment.
 
In addition to the outreach in Hartford, Abella and colleagues withPennsylvania Heart Rescue Project partnered again with the AHA and thePennsylvania Bureau of Emergency Medical Services just wrapped up the “Lend AHand, Save a Life” CPR Challenge in Pennsylvania. The goal of this partnershipwas to train 250,000 people across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in CPR.This project offered resources for schools, sports teams, community groups, andbusinesses to stage large-scale CPR training events during half-times ofsporting events or during intermissions at concerts. When the challenge wrappedup at the end of May, over 320,000 Pennsylvanians had been trained.