A Smartphone application to provide real-time cardiopulmonary resuscitation quality feedback

Quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) contributes significantly to outcomes. Key determinants of CPR quality pertaining to chest compressions are compression rate, compression depth, duration of interruptions, and chest recoil. Several studies have demonstrated that real-time audiovisual feedback improves CPR quality. We hypothesize that a mobile application using sensor data from built-in accelerometers in smartphones can provide accurate chest compression quality feedback in real time. This study aims to develop and validate an application for smartphone which can provide real-time audiovisual and haptic feedback on determinants of CPR quality.

A mobile application was developed to detect the compression depth and compression rate in real time using data captured from a smartphone's intrinsic accelerometer. The mobile device was placed on an adult manikin's chest at the point of compressions. In a simulated environment, data obtained using the application was compared directly to data obtained from a validated standard CPR quality tool.

CPR quality parameters were obtained from the application and industry standard for 60, 30s-long sessions. Bland-Altman plot analysis for compression depth showed agreement between the app measurements and standard within ±4 mm (<10% error). The interclass correlation for agreement in the measurement of compression count was 0.92 (95% CI: 0.88-0.95), indicative of very strong agreement.

Smart device applications using acceleration sensor data derived from smart phones can accurately provide real-time CPR quality feedback. With further development and validation, they can provide a ubiquitously available CPR feedback tool valuable for out-of-hospital arrests and in-hospital arrests in under-privileged areas.