SAVING LIVES: With technology and careful planning, healthcare providers are making heart and vascular care more accessible.

• Author: Saylor, Teri

Whether delivering life-saving equipment directly to patients in cardiac arrest, bringing cutting-edge therapies to prevent strokes, or using technology to allow open-heart-surgery patients a way to recover more quickly at home, health systems are making heart and vascular care more accessible and convenient, and saving lives.

Football fans across the country were shocked to witness Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapse on the field after a seemingly routine tackle in a nationally televised game against the Cincinnati Bengals in January.

In July, Bronny James, the teenage son of NBA player LeBron James, suffered cardiac arrest during basketball practice at the University of Southern California. A medical team was on hand to quickly treat him and get him to a local hospital where he recovered.

In Hamlin's case, a blow to his chest during a tackle stopped his heart, and thanks to on-field medical personnel who immediately administered CPR and applied an automated external defibrillator (AED) to restart his heart, Hamlin lives to play football again.

The remarkable recovery of both athletes is far from the norm. Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest claims the lives of nearly 350,000 people in the United States each year, according to the American Heart Association.

And the Mayo Clinic reports sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in young athletes. Estimates vary, but some reports suggest that about 1 in 50,000 to 1 in 80,000 young athletes die of sudden cardiac death each year.

Inspired by Hamlin's recovery from a potentially devastating event, Duke cardiology researcher Dr. Monique Starks is developing a drone network to deliver AEDs to people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest in their own communities.

Last January she received funding from the National Institutes of Health to explore development of the network and in June the American Heart Association included her drone project among five programs sharing a $20 million grant to develop the infrastructure. The drone project received $3.5 million, Starks says.

"In cardiac arrest, time is of the essence, with only 10 minutes before the patient dies," she says.

"And really five minutes is the optimal time for using an AED effectively," she adds.

As a co-investigator with Duke's ongoing Randomized Cluster Evaluation of Cardiac Arrest Systems program, Starks has been working on strategies for reducing response times to meet that five-minute window. One way is to make sure all first...