Shocking Trends in Health Care

The American Heart Association is starting to recommend that consumers with heat conditions such as congestive heart failure consider keeping a home defibrillator on hand in case of a sudden cardiac event. Home defibrillator's or AED's are now on sale at amazon.com. A very interesting trend is the number of hospitals that are starting to use AED's in departments such as medical or surgical in place of the more complex defibrillator's that require the nurse to identify a shockable rhythm. It does make one wonder though. What happens if the AED fails to correctly identify a shockable rhythm or mis-identifies artifact as atrial fibrillation?

Here's hoping you have spook-tacular Halloween.