1. Locating AEDs to Improve
Community Access
By Alison Leung
Mentor: Raina Merchant, MD, MS

2. If someone in this room
were to collapse, become
unresponsive and stop
breathing, what would you
do?

3. Chain of Survival

4. Background: What’s an AED?
 AED is an automated
external defibrillator
 Can shock and restart
the heart if it stops
beating normally
 Provide life-saving
audible CPR
instructions

5. Background: Why do we need
AEDs?
 Every year, 300,000 Americans suffer from out-of-
hospital cardiac arrest.
 One study estimates that an AED is used in 8% of
out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
 In Philadelphia, an AED is used approximately 1-2%
of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
 Rapid defibrillation in some cases can significantly
improve chances of survival from <1% to >50%.
 The chance of survival decreases 7-10% each
minute in cardiac arrest.

6. Where are the closest
AEDs to CPC?

7. AEDs around CPC
3
3
1 1 1
1
1
2
1

8. What are the problems
regarding AED access?

9. Lack of knowledge
People don’t know what AEDs are, nor do they know where they are.

10. Accessibility
For places that already have AEDs, are these AEDs accessible?

11. Distribution
Rural vs. Urban
Low income vs. High income

12. Financial
AEDs are expensive.

13. How can we address these
issues?
 Project goals
 Raise AED awareness
 Find out where AEDs are and build a map for the
general public and 911 dispatchers!
Map for 911
Launch the Validate dispatchers
Canvassing MyHeartMap Contest and
Challenge Entries smartphone
app

14. Methodology: Canvassing
 2 teams of 2 summer students collected information in
Philadelphia County about AEDs
 Door-to-door asking if buildings have installed AEDs
 Developed a survey
 Type of building
 Time spent in building
 Number of people contacted
 AED location
 Has the AED ever been used?
 Is the AED readily visible to visitors?

15. Where we canvassed
 Used block groups
(U.S. Census)
 Canvassed 12 block
groups in Philadelphia
 Selected block groups
with the most jobs
because of more
public locations

16. Preliminary Results
Process of Canvassing
 No patterns regarding which buildings have them
and which buildings don’t.
 Many large buildings do not have them, yet some
small retail businesses do have them.
 It often requires contacting more than one person to
find out whether or not a building has an AED.
 Searching for AEDs is time consuming
 Ranged from 1 minute to 1 hour for a building

17. Preliminary Results
% of bldgs Number of blds
Block Group #Jobs with AED's per block group Confirmed AED use
1 43655 14% 171 3
2 22874 32% 63 3
3 21847 4% 150 1
4 17834 9% 101 2
5 12456 26% 23 0
6 12325 5% 324 1
7 11824 5% 82 0
Total 142815 9% 914 10

18. What’s next?
Map for 911
Launch the Validate dispatchers
Canvassing MyHeartMap Contest and
Challenge Entries smartphone
app

19. Upcoming Events
 Release of contest
rules
 Release of the app
 Promoting contest and
AED awareness
 Flashmob
 Lipdub

20. Acknowledgements
 Raina Merchant
 The MyHeartMap research team
 Jeremy Asch
 Kirk Lozada
 Olivia Saynisch
 Joanne Levy
 Lissy Madden
 SUMR Scholars

21. Check out
www.myheartmap.org