Automatic external defibrillator provided by unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) in Greater Paris: A real world-based simulation.

Aim: To reduce the delay in defibrillation of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients, recent publications have shown that drones equipped with an automatic external defibrillator (AED) appear to be effective in sparsely populated areas. To study the effectiveness of AED-drones in high-density urban areas, we developed an algorithm based on emergency dispatch parameters for the rate and detection speed of cardiac arrests and technical and meteorological parameters.

Methods: We ran a numerical simulation to compare the actual time required by the Basic Life Support team (BLSt) for OHCA patients in Greater Paris in 2017 to the time required by an AED-drone.