February is American Heart Month, a time to drive awareness about risk factors to cardiovascular health and measures to take charge of your heart health! ANSI takes a look at the campaign focused on CPR, resources for preventative and emergency care, and some standards that support healthier lives.
This year, American Heart Month focuses on the power of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, and its positive impact on someone’s willingness to respond if they become bystanders in a cardiac emergency. CPR, an emergency lifesaving procedure that resuscitates the heart when it stops beating, can double or triple chances of survival after cardiac arrest when it is performed immediately.
To that end, not everyone is a CPR expert. A new survey from the American Heart Association indicates that although 35% of respondents “have the confidence to perform CPR when needed”–a jump from 30% in 2021—only 39% of those surveyed are familiar with conventional CPR, and only 23% with hands-only CPR. Furthermore, fewer than half of people suffering out-of-hospital cardiac arrest receive the immediate CPR they need before professional help arrives.
As a response to the findings, and to help grow a “nation of lifesavers,” the American Heart Association has released several new resources. To help everyone learn the basics of hands-only CPR, check out an instructional video, CPR Anytime® kits, and listing classes that cover lifesaving skills of CPR, first aid, and AED.
For preventive care, the American Heart Association, celebrating its centennial year, has posted several resources including an infographic about the differences between a cardiac arrest and a heart attack, and a number of articles on healthy living.
Did you know that standards also support healthy hearts?
ASTM International, an ANSI member and audited designator, has developed a number of cardiovascular standards related to stents and blood pumps. One such standard, ASTM F2914-12(2018), Standard Guide for Identification of Shelf-life Test Attributes for Endovascular Devices, addresses the determination of appropriate device attributes for testing as part of a shelf-life study for endovascular devices.
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), an ANSI member and accredited standards developer, was responsible for the development of CTA 2056-2016 (ANSI), Physical Activity Monitoring For Fitness Wearables: Step Counting, an American National Standard (ANS) that creates definitions and performance criteria for measuring step counting on consumer wearable or app-based Physical Activity Monitoring Devices.
Monitoring blood pressure is essential for preventative care, and among other standards, ANSI member IEEE has developed IEEE 1708-2014, IEEE Standard for Wearable Cuffless Blood Pressure Measuring Devices. This standard provides guidelines for manufacturers to qualify and validate their products, for potential purchasers or users to evaluate and select prospective products, and for health care professionals to understand the manufacturing processes on wearable BP devices. It also reflects changes in the health industry, as existing standards for evaluating blood-pressure meters were created for traditional devices.
For surgical support, the standard ISO 5841-2:2014, Implants for surgery - Cardiac pacemakers - Reporting of clinical performance of populations of pulse generators or leads, specifies requirements for reports on the clinical performance in humans of population samples of cardiac pulse generators or leads, intended for long-term implantation. It is among several related standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) technical committee (TC) 150, Subcommittee 6, Active implants, for which ANSI is the secretariat.
ANSI wishes you a healthy year ahead! Access more resources via the American Heart Association newsroom.
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