Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Each year, there are 20,000 treatable out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests (SCA) in Canada. Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can nearly quadruple SCA survival but needs to be started within minutes. In most communities, less than 40% of victims receive CPR before the ambulance arrives. Currently, less than 15% of SCA victims will leave the hospital alive. 9-1-1 telecommunicator-assisted CPR instructions to 9-1-1 callers (previously trained in CPR or not) can greatly improve bystander CPR and survival rates for out-of-hospital SCA. Unfortunately, about 25% of SCA victims gasp for air in the first few minutes. This can fool the 9-1-1 callers and telecommunicators into thinking the victim is still alive, and results in delayed or no CPR instructions to callers. We received pilot funding to demonstrate proof-of-concept for a novel application of the existing IBM-Watson's machine learning artificial intelligence. When developed and refined, IBM-Watson will listen to 9-1-1 conversations and help improve the ability and speed with which 9-1-1 telecommunicators can recognize SCA, initiate timely CPR instructions, and improve survival for out-of-hospital SCA victims. When implemented across Canada, this could save 1,000 lives each year. This promising technology, if working for SCA, could possibly have broader 9-1-1 applications. This proposal is to help identify and engage with a diversified/representative cohort of relevant stakeholders, disseminate findings from foundational projects leading to the proof-of-concept, and seek input from cardiac arrest survivors, 9-1-1 telecommunicators, policy-makers, privacy-ethics-contract officers, and members of the industry. As we develop the proposed artificial intelligence solution, we need to explore all facilitators and potential barriers to its successful implementation, and develop a business plan in partnership with the industry. Ultimately, this will lay the foundations for a strong CIHR operating grant.