Research investigating ‘flying’ defibrillators by drone to save more lives

The Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust is exploring if drone-delivered defibrillators could make a difference to someone in cardiac arrest in a study part-funded by Health and Care Research Wales.

With funding support from Health and Care Research Wales, Resuscitation Council UK and the National Institute of Health and Care Research, the study will soon enter the next phase, which is to interview people who have assisted in a real-life cardiac arrest to understand the difference that a drone-delivered defibrillator could have made.

The Drone-Delivered Defibrillators study (3D Project) aims to conduct a number of test flights to demonstrate the feasibility of delivering a defibrillator via drone after a 999 call.

This summer, researchers will also perform long-distance ‘beyond visual line of sight’ flights to demonstrate how real-time communications between the 999 control room and a drone operation team would work during a cardiac arrest call.

Professor Nigel Rees, Assistant Director of Research and Innovation of the Trust, said: “Drone-delivered defibrillators might sound like something from a sci-fi movie, but if it’s the quickest way to get a defibrillator to a patient, it’s a fantastic tool in our locker to improve survival rates.

“Lone bystanders aren’t currently instructed by ambulance call handlers to leave a patient to retrieve a nearby defibrillator, as the priority is the chest compressions.

“Delivering a defibrillator directly to them would negate the need to leave the patient, and potentially improve chances of survival.”

More than 6,000 people have a cardiac arrest in the community in Wales every year. When someone has a cardiac arrest, they either stop breathing entirely or take gasping or infrequent breaths.

A defibrillator can help to restart their heart while waiting for the emergency services to arrive as well as immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation. 

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