From the July 2012 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


“CPR is challenging for people and unless you apply measurement and feedback, the user may not realize the quality,” says Jamie Froman, director of marketing for Philips Healthcare’s HeartStart automated external defibrillators.

Philips’ advanced life support HeartStart defibrillators come with quality CPR measurement and feedback. A little monitor that’s connected to the defibrillator sits on the patient’s chest. It helps measure the depth and rate of the compressions and gives the end user feedback on a display screen so that they can adjust their technique accordingly.



Zoll Medical Corporation, which was recently acquired by Japan’s Asahi Kasei Corp., provides Real CPR Help and real-time audio and visual feedback on all of its defibrillators to coach rescuers to the correct depth and rate of chest compressions as recommended by the AHA Guidelines. A few of Zoll’s defibrillators offer See-Thru CPR, which minimizes interruptions during CPR.

“The user is getting visual feedback on the important elements of quality and they are getting audible feedback when they are out of range,” says Ward Hamilton, senior vice president and vice president of marketing for Zoll. But Hamilton stresses the importance of the kind of feedback received.

“We tried to make sure it’s enough feedback but not too much that it interferes or you tune it out,” he says.

Data management is also a critical part of Philips’ advanced life support HeartStart line. “We can acquire a 12-lead ECG from a patient and send that to a receiving hospital in order for them to determine what hospital they should go to and the appropriate pathway of care,” says Froman. All the data on the device also helps guide the patient’s post treatment of care.

Zoll defibrillators with See-Thru CPR and Real CPR Help affected the University of California San Diego medical team. They tripled survival rates using the devices along with a “resuscitation bundle” as a new paradigm of care — again, using feedback to guide CPR performance and data analysis to aid in team training.

Taking this a step further, Physio-Control’s fastest growing product, the LUCAS 2 chest compression system, is a portable device that’s strapped onto a patient’s chest during cardiac arrest. It delivers automated, consistent chest compressions that aren’t compromised by a professional tiring out.

July 2012 Magazine

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