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Cardiac arrests are responsible for killing more than 250,000 people in the United States and more than 40,000 people in France each year. Through the "Staying Alive" project, Dassault Systèmes is illustrating its commitment to combating the issue of heart attacks, one of the public health sector's biggest concerns, and exploring new horizons for its digital solutions. In a virtual 3D world, healthcare professionals, as well as the public, can visualize and train to respond to cardiac emergencies in a collaborative 3D environment using the Web or hand-held devices, an innovation that should help to reduce the number of deaths related to heart failure. Users can measure how well they did and even practice with friends since the 3D experience is available as a Facebook application.
"Staying Alive is the first medical initiative of its kind whose objective is to provide optimal training of the appropriate techniques, which can be repeated as often as necessary, before applying them to a real patient," explains Alexandre Mignon, MD, PhD, MBA, professor of Anesthesiology & Intensive Care Medicine and head of the iLUMENS, AP-HP. "Information is more easily retained since people learn through practice. This project, based on a realistic experience, enables anyone to learn the reflexes they need to adopt after having called for professional emergency help."
New horizons for 3D simulation
Dassault Systèmes believes the virtual world can help improve the real world we live in. "We are providing the medical profession with the same technologies that have proven invaluable to so many other industries," says Frédéric Vacher, director, Content & Media Strategy Marketing at Dassault Systèmes. "With this new innovative and lifelike experience, we are opening the door to new types of uses for 3D simulation and for a new type of audience."
Many medical equipment companies such as Philips already use Dassault Systèmes solutions to design their products in 3D. Designed specifically for use by individuals without professional medical training, Philips' HearthStart (HS1) defibrillator is featured in the Staying Alive project. In a virtual environment, people can more effectively learn how to operate this defibrillator in various situations, for training, simulation, communication and maintenance.
Staying Alive was developed with Dassault Systèmes' 3DVIA Studio Pro and has received the support of the SFAR (Société Française d'Anesthésie et de Réanimation) and the CFRC (Conseil Français de Réanimation Cardio-pulmonaire).
Experience it and save lives on www.stayingalive.fr/en and www.3dvia.com.
