Project 3.0 - CPR in Space
In pursuit of better understanding the human circulatory system and causes for heart failure, we have been developing our first heart simulator which will serve as a platform for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) both on Earth and in space. Cardiac arrest occurs in nearly 35,000 Canadians every year with only 10% successful resuscitation via conventional human applied CPR. Chances of survival triple when a bystander uses an automatic external defibrillator (AED) (Heart & Stroke, 2019).
Space Health’s Project 3.0 will provide the research and healthcare communities with a deeper understanding of the limitations of current CPR and mechanical CPR-assisted devices and will generate information on physiological feedback to CPR through sensorial data for development of next generation CPR devices. Project 3.0 is proposed for Earth applications as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as development of space healthcare technology for the upcoming Artemis mission.
Space Health is joining forces with Concordia’s Laboratory of Cardiovascular Fluid Dynamics to create a next generation heart simulator that will provide a real-time interface for physiological data when performing both human-applied and mechanical-assisted CPR. The interface will provide feedback on circulatory and anatomical variables, such as chest compression force and depth, blood flow, and circulation.
The benefit of producing the proposed system is to provide bystanders who are not trained in medicine to take control of emergency situations and increase the success rate of out-of-hospital CPR.