| Summary: | Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is the third leading cause of death in Europe, with an associated survival rate of only 8%. A rapid and effective intervention of the community with the application of the Basic Life Support (BLS) algorithm and the execution of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), emphasizing chest compressions, can double chances of victim survival. Being CPR of critical impact on victim survival and extremely accessible to all the community, it is important and necessary to guarantee the quality of BLS education, optimizing CPR skills acquisition and knowledge retention. In this context, the use of devices to support CPR training trough real-time feedback are considered by international guidelines an important tool for BLS education as they allow training monitorization and show improvement on CPR training performance and skills acquisition. Based on this educational need, this project presents several approaches, from electronic sensors to exploratory optical fiber technology, for the development of a low-cost feedback device for CPR training, focused on assessing chest compression quality, in order to facilitate a more objective and regular training, potentiating a more effective knowledge acquisition and retention. From all the technologies tested, the selected approaches for prototype development showed great response and robustness to chest compressions during CPR training, providing accurate assessment of specific parameters of chest compressions, according to current international guidelines. Thus, it is expected that the proposed solution could provide an alternative or a complementary tool for CPR skills acquisition and maintenance on BLS education. As future work, it is recommended the inclusion of ventilation related measurements and further development envisioning educational validation.
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