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By: Carla Kriwet, CEO, Connected Care, Philips & Nancy Brown, CEO, American Heart Association
Today we’re staring down some harrowing realities related to heart health: Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of unexpected death globally and accounts for as high as 40-50% of the nearly 17 million cardiovascular deaths a year worldwide.[1,2] It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere.
The heart health and prevention conversation is one that both Philips and the American Heart Association have championed for years, which is why we’ve united to launch Connected Pulse, a first-of-its-kind program that combines education, training and technology to increase sudden cardiac arrest survival rates in densely populated cities.
At the heart of Connected Pulse is increasing CPR awareness, inspiring use of publicly available automated external defibrillators (AEDs), and innovating new technologies to strengthen the “chain of survival” from event onset to emergency room arrival. What makes Connected Pulse unique are the personalized features that meet people where they are in any given situation:
To understand the potential of the Connected Pulse program, we first need to realize that the heart health conversation is rife with myths, which is why I sat down recently with Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, to answer some of the most common questions about sudden cardiac arrest.
Nancy Brown: The chain of survival involves four steps: 1) alerting emergency medical services, 2) performing CPR on the individual, 3) starting an AED, and 4) activating critical life support, provided by the emergency medical services.
Through the Connected Pulse program, the likelihood of a layperson being on-hand to administer CPR and use an AED is greater. That’s because we’re providing the ability to immediately locate an AED and nearby lay first responders which can significantly increase survival rates.
Nancy Brown: In sudden cardiac arrest, the heart stops beating, keeping oxygen-rich blood from reaching the brain. It is often fatal if intervention does not happen immediately and survival is highest when bystanders deliver CPR and defibrillation within three to five minutes of collapse.[5] Your actions can only help and, in fact, bystanders are a critical component in the chain of survival. Therefore, it’s imperative to drive more awareness around sudden cardiac arrest to increase the number of trained bystanders and put fewer people at risk in an emergency.
Coordinated care outside the hospital is challenging because many places still lack public AED access and CPR-trained bystanders are uncommon. If we replace sudden cardiac arrest myths with facts and drive more awareness around the cardiac arrest problem, we hope to increase survival rates in an emergency.
The combined strengths of Philips and the American Heart Association are delivering customizable and scalable solutions that reach more people and more communities. When knowledge, empowerment, training and resources are the only things standing in the way of saving lives, we can all work together to make a change.
[1] http://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death
[2] Global public health problem of sudden cardiac death, Rahul Mehra, National Center for Biotechnology Information, September 16, 2016
[3] AHA Releases 2015 Heart and Stroke Statistics, Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation,
September 16, 2016
[4] Koster, R. W., Baubin, M. A., Bossaert, L. L., Caballero, A., Cassan, P., Castren, M., . . . Sandroni, C. (2010). European resuscitation council guidelines for resuscitation 2010 section 2. Adult basic life support and use of automated external defibrillators. Resuscitation, 81(10), 1277-1292.
[5] Kleinman, M. E., Brennan, E. E., Goldberger, Z. D., Swor, R. A., Terry, M., Bobrow, B. J., . . . Rea, T. (2015). Part 5: Adult basic life support and cardiopulmonary resuscitation quality: 2015 american heart association guidelines update for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiovascular care. Circulation, 132(18 suppl 2), S414-S435.
[6] Part 4: The Automated External Defibrillator, American Heart Association, September 16, 2016
Chief Business Leader Connected Care
Dr. Carla Kriwet is Executive Vice President and Chief Business Leader Connected Care, and a member of the Royal Philips Executive Committee.
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With more than 20 years of experience in business strategy and operational execution in the industrial and medical device industries, Carla has a successful record of achieving ambitious targets, delivering double-digit growth and leading organizations through transformations. As Chief Business Leader Connected Care at Philips, Carla is responsible for population health programs, healthcare informatics, patient monitoring, therapeutic care, hospital IT, ventilation devices, automatic external defibrillators and medical consumables and sensors.
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