American Heart Association Automated External Defibrillator Symposium: Summary and Recommendations
The American Heart Association (AHA) introduced public access defibrillation more than 30 years ago. Since then, we have seen the growth of public access defibrillation programs across many settings within communities. However, despite high expectations that the availability of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and more integrated public access defibrillation programs would dramatically increase cardiac arrest survival, AEDs are used in the United States in only 4% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and survival rates have remained disappointingly low. In follow-up to a recent International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation report, an AED Symposium was organized by members of the AHA Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee to establish a strategic roadmap for AED technology, education and training, and real-world use of these devices, including integration with public access defibrillation programs to meet the AHA's goal of doubling out-of-hospital cardiac arrests survival by 2030. The meeting brought together a diverse group of subject matter experts including representatives from the US Food and Drug Administration, the defibrillator industry, clinicians, and scientists. This paper summarizes the proceedings of the AED symposium and suggests a set of strategic recommendations to ultimately improve survival from cardiac arrest.
Authors
- Michael R. Sayre (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0322-3181)
- José G. Cabañas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6623-2623)
- Michael C. Kurz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7530-2930)
- Carolina Malta Hansen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8074-7731)
- Rudolph W. Koster (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7819-4330)
- Katie N. Dainty (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2906-8813)
- Maureen O’Connor
- Jon C. Rittenberger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2001-9764)
- Comilla Sasson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9922-6637)
- Monique A. Starks (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4719-399X)
- Ashish R. Panchal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7382-982X)
- Keith A. Marill (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2985-1605)
- Dianne L. Atkins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6123-3105)
- Benjamin S. Abella (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2521-0891)
- David D. Salcido (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3735-8167)
- Tom P. Aufderheide (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6086-0932)
- Lance B. Becker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7051-8778)
- Paul Snobelen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9665-5981)
Institutions
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- University of Iowa (US)
- American Heart Association (US)
- New York City Fire Department (US)
- Northwell Health (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- Duke University (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- SUNY Upstate Medical University (US)
- Medical College of Wisconsin (US)
- York General Hospital (US)
- The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (US)
- University of Chicago (US)
- Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
- Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital (US)
- Institute of Health Services and Policy Research (CA)
- Amsterdam University Medical Centers (NL)
- Wake County Human Services (US)
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of the American Heart Association
- Published
- 2025-03-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.124.039291
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Cardiac Arrest and Resuscitation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.51
Funders
- American Heart Association
- Stryker
- ZOLL Medical Corporation
- HeartSine
- Laerdal Foundation for Acute Medicine
- Novo Nordisk
- Region Hovedstaden
- Helsefonden
- TrygFonden
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute