A Reno-based company will be launching the nation’s first drone defibrillator delivery service to increase the dismal odds of surviving a cardiac arrest. The survival rate is about one in 10. Reno Public Radio’s Anh Gray reports.
Flirtey, a drone delivery service company, is partnering with the Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority—or REMSA—an ambulance service provider in Northern Nevada. By 2018, the program will deploy defibrillators by drones, so patients can get care quickly, even before responders can get on the scene.
Adam Heinz is with REMSA.
“I think that if we’re able to produce very reliable and evidence-based data that is going to suggest what we hypothesize," Heinz explains, "this is going to be a pilot not only for Northern Nevada, but for the nation.”
According to the American Heart Association, more than 350,000 people experienced an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the U.S. in 2016. Defibrillators are the most effective treatment during a cardiac arrest and are user-friendly for bystanders.
