What can primary care doctors do?

There is belief (p 45) that placing automated external defibrillators (AEDs) into the hands of trained first responders and untrained bystanders is the best way to reduce rates of sudden death.1 However, trials conducted by van Alem et al (p 23) and others2 have not succeeded in increasing survival rates. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-sponsored randomized trial testing the strategy of public access to AEDs was only marginally successful: The average intervention effect …