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. 2025 Apr;14(7):e039291.
doi: 10.1161/JAHA.124.039291. Epub 2025 Mar 19.

American Heart Association Automated External Defibrillator Symposium: Summary and Recommendations

José G Cabañas  1   2 , Comilla Sasson  3 , Benjamin S Abella  4 , Tom P Aufderheide  5 , Lance B Becker  6 , Katie N Dainty  7   8 , Carolina Malta-Hansen  9 , Rudolph W Koster  10 , Michael C Kurz  11 , Keith A Marill  12 , Maureen O'Connor  13 , Ashish R Panchal  14 , Jon C Rittenberger  15 , David D Salcido  16 , Michael R Sayre  17 , Paul Snobelen  18 , Monique A Starks  19 , Dianne L Atkins  20
Affiliations

American Heart Association Automated External Defibrillator Symposium: Summary and Recommendations

José G Cabañas et al. J Am Heart Assoc. 2025 Apr.

Abstract

The American Heart Association (AHA) introduced public access defibrillation more than 30 years ago. Since then, we have seen the growth of public access defibrillation programs across many settings within communities. However, despite high expectations that the availability of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and more integrated public access defibrillation programs would dramatically increase cardiac arrest survival, AEDs are used in the United States in only 4% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and survival rates have remained disappointingly low. In follow-up to a recent International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation report, an AED Symposium was organized by members of the AHA Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee to establish a strategic roadmap for AED technology, education and training, and real-world use of these devices, including integration with public access defibrillation programs to meet the AHA's goal of doubling out-of-hospital cardiac arrests survival by 2030. The meeting brought together a diverse group of subject matter experts including representatives from the US Food and Drug Administration, the defibrillator industry, clinicians, and scientists. This paper summarizes the proceedings of the AED symposium and suggests a set of strategic recommendations to ultimately improve survival from cardiac arrest.

Keywords: automated external defibrillators (AEDs); cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR); human factors; lay responders; out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest.

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Conflict of interest statement

Benjamin S. Abella MD MPhil reports research funding from the National Institute Health, Avive, Becton Dickinson, Consulting: Becton Dickinson, Zoll, Stryker, Neuroptics; Tom P. Aufderheide, MD, MS, grants from: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke for ARREST Trial and, Influence of Cooling duration on Efficacy in Cardiac Arrest Patients. Zoll Medical inc. for Ventilation Monitoring in Out‐of‐Hospital Emergency Care. Consulting: Medtronics, Inc. Volunteer: Citizen CPR Foundation, Resuscitation Science Symposium Planning Committee, and 3CPR Leadership Committee; Lance B. Becker MD, institutional grants from Nihon Kohden, Philips Medical Systems, and ZOLL Medical Corp. Serves on the scientific advisory boards for Nihon Kohden and Philips; Katie N. Dainty PhD, member Medical Advisory Board for Philips Healthcare; Carolina Malta‐Hansen MD, PhD, grants from TrygFonden, Helsefonden, Independent Research Fund Denmark, Laerdal Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Capital Region of Denmark Research Fund, Member of International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation Basic Life Support Task Force and RACE‐CARS (Regional Approaches to Cardiovascular Emergencies—Cardiac Arrest) trial steering committee; Rudolph W. Koster, MD, PhD, medical advisor for Stryker Emergency Care (Redmond, WA), and Heartsine (Belfast, UK); Michael R. Sayre, MD, Consultant, Stryker Emergency Care (Redmond, WA); Monique A. Starks MD, MHS, reports grants on AHA Health Equity Research Network—Improving Access to Care and other Health Inequities in Rural America—Developing and Testing Drone‐Delivered AEDs for Cardiac Arrests In Rural America, The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute K23 Award—Evaluation of the Requirements and Critical Features of a Drone‐Deployed AED Network to Improve Community‐Level Survival after out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest, and UH3 Cluster Randomized Trial, RACE‐CARS. The remaining authors have no disclosures to report.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. AHA PAD symposium themes.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Distribution of number of laws, policies, and regulations by state in the United States.
AED indicates automated external defibrillators.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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