Smart watch to detect unwitnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrests

The University of Twente and its partners are developing a smart wearable to automatically and reliably detect out-of-hospital cardiac arrest  (OHCA), and to trigger an immediate emergency response. The UT will test the effectiveness of the proposed platform using simulation models and measure the impact on survival and response time. The study is published in a medical journal. Of approximately 17,000 persons suffering annually from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in the Netherlands. Many die or have poor neurologic outcomes because Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are alerted too late or not alerted at all (unwitnessed cardiac arrest). Associate Derya Demirtas of the UT explains their state-of-the-art solution: "We propose a technical solution to automatically and reliably detect OHCA, and to trigger an immediate emergency response. Our solution will significantly decrease the time to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), potentially saving thousands of lives each year and improving neurologic outcomes." Artificial intelligence.