{
  "abstract": "An out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is among the most time-sensitive medical emergencies, yet the emergency response can contribute substantially to the healthcare sector’s environmental impact. The healthcare sector accounts for around 4–8.5% of worldwide greenhouse emissions, which contribute to climate change and, in turn, negatively influence health outcomes.1 Rapid access to an automated external defibrillator (AED) and early bystander basic life support (BLS) are key determinants of survival.2 In remote or mountainous areas, AED availability is limited,3 and response times are long, frequently leading to activation of helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS), which is effective but carbon intensive. Specific remote areas, such as natural parks, can be highly visited and require frequent emergency activations. Real-world implementation has shown that drone-based AED delivery can shorten time to defibrillation (TTD) with good clinical outcome in urban areas.4 We also showed in a highly visited remote natural park that the bystander TTD through a drone-delivered AED was significantly shorter (2.2 (95% CI 2.0 to 2.3) min) compared with HEMS defibrillation (18.2 (95% CI 17.1 to 19.2) min, p<0.001).5 However, the potential environmental advantage of drone deployment has not yet been quantified. We therefore aimed to assess the carbon footprint associated with drone and helicopter-based defibrillator delivery in a controlled simulation.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Institute of Mountain Emergency Medicine, Eurac Research, Bolzano, Italy",
        "Department of Sport Science, Medical section, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria"
      ],
      "name": "Michiel J van Veelen"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "terraXcube, Eurac Research, Bolzano, Italy"
      ],
      "name": "Abraham Mejia-Aguilar"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Umeå, Sweden"
      ],
      "name": "Atse Louwen"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Institute of Mountain Emergency Medicine, Eurac Research, Bolzano, Italy"
      ],
      "name": "Giacomo Strapazzon"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Reduction of carbon footprint of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest response through defibrillator-delivering drones: a controlled cross-over simulation study",
  "uid": "5c17d6af-b785-5c3c-9ec2-ad64feb0bb18"
}