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Interactive Kiosks Hope To Teach Chicagoans CPR

CHICAGO (CBS) -- In an effort to teach more people the proper CPR to revive someone suffering cardiac arrest, Lurie Children's Hospital and the American Heart Association have come up with interactive kiosks to teach the hands-only method for chest compressions.

A recent study found nearly half of Americans don't know how to perform CPR, and even fewer know the hands-only method.

Lurie Children's Hospital collaborated with the American Heart Association to create a solution. Interactive kiosks at the hospital, at Terminal 2 at O'Hare International Airport, and at McCormick Place.

Dr. Stuart Berger, executive director of the Heart Center at Lurie Children's Hospital, said Chicago's survival outcomes are not where they need to be.

"The outcomes after cardiac arrest in Chicago are not good, but if the public could learn how to do CPR … we can improve that. We can improve Chicago's status, but more importantly we can save lives," he said.

The kiosks provide brief how-to video on performing CPR, and allow users to practice on a mannequin.

The machines can teach users how to push hard and fast enough to revive an adult or teen whose heart appears to have stopped beating. The computers will give users feedback regarding whether they are pressing deep and hard enough to get blood circulating throughout the body.

The kiosks also teach users the two basic steps to save a live when someone suffers cardiac arrest: call 911, and push hard and fast in the center of the chest to get the victim's blood flowing.

According to the American Heart Association, the Bee Gees song "Staying Alive" has the perfect beat for CPR – about 100 beats per minute.

Approximately 1,000 people use the kiosk at Lurie each month.

Similar kiosks also have been set up at airports in Baltimore, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dallas/Fort Worth, Harrisburg, Dayton, Orlando, and Santa Ana, California; as well as AHA national headquarters in Dallas, Home Depot Headquarters in Atlanta, Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, the Cincinnati Museum Center, the University of Dayton, and Independence Visitor Center in Philadelphia.

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