Richmond area will be site of national study on public defibrillators

By Erin Lucero
Office of Development, School of Medicine

RICHMOND, Va. – Richmond will be one of 24 cities in the United States and Canada to participate in a federally-funded study to evaluate whether placing automated external defibrillators in public places can increase survival among people suffering from cardiac arrest.

About 250,000 Americans die each year of cardiac arrest, which is usually caused by a heart rhythm disturbance. Automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, shock the heart back into a normal rhythm. Recent studies have shown that survival can increase dramatically with the use of AEDs that have been placed in specific sites like casinos and airplanes.

"The chance of surviving cardiac arrest drops 10 percent with each minute that passes without a defibrillator shocking the heart back into a normal rhythm," said Mary Ann Peberdy, M.D., a cardiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia Hospitals. "In the U.S., that translates to only one to three percent of people surviving. By placing AEDs in key public areas and training volunteers in their use, we hope to dramatically reduce the time it takes to get help to people in cardiac arrest."

The new study will evaluate the impact of wide-spread placement of AEDs in public areas like shopping malls, golf courses, fitness centers, office buildings and housing communities. Peberdy, who serves as the study's principal investigator for the Richmond area, hopes to enroll at least 20 sites around the community in the study.

Peberdy and her colleagues will work with each participating site to develop its medical emergency response system and to train volunteers in CPR and the use of AEDs. Because the study requires that sites with AEDs be compared against sites without the devices, only half of the sites that enroll in the study will be randomly assigned to receive AEDs. All sites will receive enhanced training for a cardiac emergency and will be closely linked to their local emergency medical system.

In accordance with Food and Drug Administration policies governing studies that involve emergency research, anyone who has a cardiac arrest at one of the study locations will be enrolled into the study. Because people in cardiac arrest are unable to consent to or decline participation in the study, VCU researchers will hold free community meetings that will provide information about the study and will allow opportunity for public comment. The public is invited to attend the meetings, which will be held:

• 6 p.m. – 7 p.m., Dec. 14, classroom 2 of the Henrico Division of Fire Training, 7701 E. Parham Road;

• 3 p.m. – 4 p.m., Dec. 18, auditorium of the Medical Sciences Building on VCU's MCV Campus, 1217 E. Marshall St.; and

• 6 p.m. – 7 p.m., Dec. 18, Manchester Volunteer Rescue Squad, 3500 Courthouse Road in Chesterfield.

The study is funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the American Heart Association. Twenty-four cities in the United States and Canada are participating in the study, including Chicago, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Individuals who cannot attend the meetings but who have comments or concerns are invited to contact Peberdy by phone at (804) 828-4889 or by mail at VCU's MCV Hospitals, P.O. Box 980204, Richmond, Va., 23298. Individuals also may contact David Forster with Western Institutional Review Board by phone at (800) 562-4780 or by mail at 2525 Seventh Ave., SW, Olympia, Wash., 98502-5010.