THE LEADING CAUSE OF NATURAL DEATH – According to the American Heart Association (AHA), one American will have a heart attack every 40 seconds. Unfortunately, most of us know a family member or friend who has been unexpectedly debilitated or killed after a heart attack, an event that can often lead to Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA). SCA itself is the leading natural cause of death in the United States, claiming an estimated 325,000 lives each year. The impact of this tragic statistic can simply be mitigated by the rapid administration of an AED (automated external defibrillator) shock, an invaluable action that could save an average American’s life. Without a bystander using AED shock therapy, 70 percent of cardiac arrest patients either die or survive with impaired brain function.

TIME – Valuing every second is crucial in such a situation. Every minute without medical treatment increases the risk of death by 10 percent, according to the AHA. Typically, paramedics take an average of 8 to 12 minutes to respond to a 911 call, and many times much longer in impoverished neighborhoods where the risk of SCA is considerably higher for all residents, thus indicating that an alternative, more rapid response system must be established to decrease the severity of cardiac arrest for all Americans who may be affected. 

IMPACT OF COVID-19 – A majority of doctors have that their hospitals have seen at least a 40% drop in admissions for heart attack since March. Health professionals speculate that people may be ignoring heart attack symptoms in fear of going to the ER. In addition, COVID-19 itself impacts the heart. Researchers found abnormalities in the hearts of 78% recovered patients and "ongoing myocardial inflammation" in 60%. Especially during the new age of COVID-19 that has drawn resources and valuable attention away from urgent medical situations such as heart attacks, a new decentralized system of rapid healthcare response must be established.

DISPROPORTIONATE EFFECT ON AFRICAN-AMERICANS – In a startling 2009 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that African-Americans have a much higher incidence of heart failure than other races, and it develops at younger ages. Before age 50, African-Americans' heart failure rate is 20 times higher than that of whites, according to the study. "I have a family history of heart disease on both sides," says Robin Drummond, a 55-year-old African-American and resident of Hammond, LA. "I've had uncles, aunts, and grandparents who've died from heart attacks and heart disease, and two of my mother's brothers died four months apart. One had a heart attack in church, and four months later, one had a heart attack in the post office." To further exacerbate the issue, lower-income neighborhoods, which have disproportionately concentrated minority populations, see a 10% lag time for a rapid response to heart attacks. This alarming statistic, brought to light by UCSF, must be reduced, especially in such a scenario where every second counts.

HOW TESLA CAN HELP – A new rapid response system to treat cardiac arrest victims would need to be well-coordinated, supported by an established transportation infrastructure, and incentivize public responsibility in order to maximize the efficiency of such a system. We believe that partnering with Tesla in order to achieve and scale these fundamental goals would allow our proposal to greatly reduce the mortality rate and severity of cardiac arrests across the nation. Tesla’s extensive digitally interconnected fleet of vehicles across the United States can serve as an invaluable rapid health response network that can be used to significantly shorten medical response times, which subsequently would save and improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. 

In the case of a cardiac arrest, supplementing the traditional medical response team with proximal Tesla drivers equipped with AEDs can save precious minutes of early treatment, which have been shown to definitively alleviate the impact and associated risks of cardiac arrest. Victims who received a shock from a publicly-available AED that was administered by a bystander had more than 2.5 times higher odds of survival and favorable health outcomes compared to victims who first received an AED shock after emergency responders arrived.

PROJECT AED – Essentially, Tesla consumers would be given the option to equip their Tesla vehicles with an AED and charger for a small extra fee, but this fee would likely be earned back, as the driver will receive an appropriate fraction of the financial compensation that medical responders receive for each situation they choose to respond to. Drivers who have decided to participate in this AED program will be socially and financially compelled to respond, especially ensuring that the victims themselves have a greater chance of being assisted by an AED-equipped Tesla driver. 

The initial notification process would involve emergency medical dispatchers alerting paramedics of the incident according to their regular procedures, while also monitoring a live local map of Teslas equipped with AEDs. The dispatcher (or an associated software developed through a partnership between Tesla and local/national emergency medical dispatch services) would then be able to also alert any Teslas that are in close proximity of the incident. The closest driver to “accept” the dispatch notification will be automatically assisted in traveling there. 

AEDs themselves are fairly simple to use, as the machine itself guides the user through the steps needed to administer proper treatment.

OVERVIEW – If Tesla can commit to giving its consumers the choice to add an AED to their vehicle, they would contribute significantly in reducing the severity and incidence of America’s leading cause of death while being morally and economically appealing to general consumers. Together, we could drastically ensure better possible health outcomes for nearly 120 million American adults who suffer from heart disease (including high blood pressure) and could be afflicted by a heart attack at any given time.

We want to save hundreds of thousands of heart attack victims across the country – one Tesla at a time.

FUTURE – Once Tesla paves the way for this novel system, we hope to partner with other car manufacturers to standardize such a system to undoubtedly save millions of lives and improve the quality of life for countless other victims of sudden cardiac arrest – a manifestation of ischemic heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the United States and around the world.