The inaugural design in Amtrak's 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.
To celebrate February as American Heart Month, the News Blog is highlighting some of the latest heart-centric news and stories from all areas of Penn Medicine.
It’s a lifesaving device that you might walk by every day and not even notice. Automated external defibrillators, so called AEDs, are lightweight, portable units that deliver an electric shock through the chest to the heart when a person is experiencing a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). These devices are located in thousands of public buildings and businesses in every community, but many in the general public remain unaware of where they are and how to use them in an emergency.
That’s why doctors and designers from the University of Pennsylvania have launched a brand new initiative, called the Penn Defibrillator Design Challenge to ask artists, designers, and everyday citizens to create and submit eye-catching design ideas for the space immediately surrounding AEDs. They hope that combining public design with an important public health message will help save more SCA patients. It’s a critical mission considering cardiac arrest takes the lives of more than 350,000 people each year in the United States.
“Unfortunately, AEDs are used less than five percent of the time,” said Raina Merchant, MD, MSHP, assistant professor of Emergency Medicine and director of the Defibrillator Design Challenge, in an interview with WHYY radio. "That's a huge missed opportunity." The idea behind the new contest is that by spotlighting AEDs with creative artwork, bystanders will remember where the devices are located and know that anyone can use one on a cardiac arrest victim.
Merchant was interviewed by WHYY radio and several other Philadelphia-area media outlets, including Philadelphia Magazine and the Philadelphia Business Journal, about the contest and the launch of the very first design in Amtrak’s historic Philadelphia 30th Street Station during the first week of American Heart Month. The event featured speakers from Penn Medicine, Penn Design, Amtrak, and the American Heart Association.
“We know that when bystanders provide CPR and use AEDs before an ambulance arrives, about 40 percent of victims survive,” said Mariell Jessup, MD, professor of Medicine, medical director of the Penn Medicine Heart & Vascular Center, and president of the American Heart Association, at the launch event for the new contest. “That is why it is so crucial to help the public become more familiar with CPR and how to use an AED during an emergency. With the help of talented artists and designers from across the country, we hope to make these devices more noticeable and less intimidating to everyone. When people understand that they can help in an emergency and the tools they need to help are readily available, we can save more lives.”
And submissions are already starting to come in from the art and design community after the launch
A contest design submission.
event. One entrant said “My graphic design instructor informed me of this contest and I really wanted create something for it. It's for a great cause, and I hope my design can help bring awareness to AEDs.”
Anyone can follow the flow of submissions and vote on their favorite designs at www.defibdesignchallenge.com. The contest will wrap-up on April 6, 2014, at which point the public’s votes will be tallied and an expert panel of artists, sponsors, scholars and physicians will review the entries to identify designs that display artistic and educational excellence. Winners could receive cash prizes of up to $1,000.
“When the contest ends, we’re hoping to have a diverse selection of submissions that are usable in other public spaces around Philadelphia,” Dr. Merchant says. “We’ll be looking for partners from around the city to follow in Amtrak’s footsteps and allow us to install some of these creative, and hopefully life saving, designs in high traffic areas where they will be most helpful in an emergency.”