CPR RsQ Assist Inc.
Franklin
Innovation: Hands-only CPR device
www.cprrsqassist.com
What if a friend or stranger underwent a life-threatening medical event right in front of you? Would you have the composure and expertise to accurately perform CPR?
Often in these situations, bystanders either don’t know CPR or hesitate to begin mouth-to-mouth resuscitation with a stranger. But 2010 guidelines from the American Heart Association have also recently shown that hands-only CPR can be just as effective as traditional CPR.
Joe Hanson took all of this into account and created CPR RsQ Assist, a hands-only CPR device that can walk even a beginner through the process.
CPR RsQ Assist is shaped like a bellows, and has the right amount of resistance inside to provide the rescuer with the recommended two-inch compression depth. The soft, rubber, pillow-like device is meant to make the compressions easier on rescuers, so they don’t tire out before paramedics arrive.
“Manual, hands-only CPR is very uncomfortable,” Hanson said. “When you attempt to bend your hands backwards 45 to 90 degrees, it doesn’t work out very well. Some people that have arthritis or any other malfunction as far as their hands are concerned…have found it impossible to push down hand over hand.”
CPR RsQ Assist also has an audio component, counting at the right pace for the rescuer to administer effective CPR, which is 100 compressions per minute. The user presses a red button on the device, and it instructs him or her (in Hanson’s voice) on what to do in a chaotic situation.
“It’s an audiovisual metronome,” Hanson said. “The reason is that what (researchers have) found … is that people start CPR and because of an adrenaline rush, they were doing 150, 160 chest compressions in a minute and then, because of exhaustion, they were dropping to 40 compressions per minute.”
After three years of effort, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved CPR RsQ Assist as a class three medical device in December 2013. It’s the only device of its kind that is FDA approved. The American Heart Association also gave its stamp of approval.
CPR RsQ Assist Inc., which has 12 employees, began online sales in August 2013 and started distribution in May. The product is primarily manufactured in China, but final assembly and distribution happens in Franklin, he said. CPR RsQ Assist has a warehouse in the Franklin Industrial Park.
The device retails for $79.50, or $122 with a wall cabinet. Hanson hopes public venues will install the device for use in cardiac arrest situations, either as a less expensive alternative to a defibrillator or for use alongside a defibrillator.
It usually takes between four and six minutes for emergency medical teams to arrive after calling 911. The CPR RsQ Assist is meant to keep the patient’s heart pumping in the crucial moments before help arrives.
“The whole idea was to make a device that kept you in the cadence and that was also easy to use and comfortable for the rescuer,” Hanson said. “The entire mission is to deliver a neurologically intact victim to the emergency room. If we can do that, the hospitals, the EMS service, are phenomenally equipped to restore that victim to a quality of life.”
Though it has only been in commercial use for about two months, CPR RsQ Assist has already been used in one emergency situation, at a little league game. The rescuer, who did about 400 chest compressions, reported no arm or wrist fatigue, Hanson said.
The North Shore Fire Department has also been helping the company test the product and get the word out about CPR RsQ Assist to raise money for its foundation. The device can be used by both passerby and professionals for a reminder of rhythm, said Chief Robert Whitaker.
“Generally, our people are very well trained in CPR, so we don’t necessarily need the instructions,” he said. “It’s the cutdown on fatigue and the reminder of the rate. Sometimes there’s a lot going on so you have to keep track of that stuff. It’s a nice reminder. We only have so many people we can get on scene in a certain amount of time, and doing CPR isn’t easy, unfortunately, physically, even for people that are trained to do it.”
