Zègre-Hemsey awarded NSF grant for drone delivery of AEDs

The UNC School of Nursing is proud to announce that Jessica Zègre-Hemsey, PhD, RN, FAHA and Wayne Rosamond, PhD, from UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, have been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to support their groundbreaking study, “Integrating Drone Delivery of AEDs Into EMS Response (IN-AIR).”

The study will partner with Mecklenburg County Emergency Medical Services (MEDIC) to incorporate drone-delivered automated external defibrillators (AEDs) into EMS protocols, creating an integrated simulation system for faster response times to out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA).

OHCA affects approximately 350,000 individuals in the United States each year, with only a 10% survival rate. Timely cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation significantly improve survival chances, yet the median EMS arrival time is eight minutes—far too long to ensure optimal outcomes, especially in rural regions where response times are often delayed.

The IN-AIR study has two primary aims: first, to assess whether an AED-drone delivery system can be successfully integrated into existing EMS and 911 infrastructure, and second, to evaluate the feasibility and time savings of drone-delivered AEDs for live OHCA situations through an EMS-integrated system. This research represents a major step forward in closing the critical time gap for defibrillation, with the potential to significantly improve OHCA survival rates nationwide.