A study on the effectiveness of video call dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation in enhancing the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation among laymen bystanders in Malaysia.

Background: Technology has enabled the utilization of dispatcher-assisted CPR (DA-CPR) via mobile video call for layman bystanders as opposed to the conventional audio call. This study is aimed at examining the effects of medical guidance through a video call on CPR quality during the management of cardiac arrest.
Methods: A quasi-experimental study was carried out on 102 subjects. These subjects were divided into two groups; layman who received CPR instructions via dispatcher-assisted video call (n=51) and healthcare personnel (n=51) who did not receive any assistance. The compression rate and depth, compression fraction, chest recoil, and hand positioning were compared between the groups.
Results: Laymen who received video call DA-CPR performed better than healthcare personnel in adhering to the recommended compression rate (109.7min-1 vs 126.7min-1, P < 0.05) and allowing chest recoil (94.8% vs 84.4%, P < 0.05) but performed poorer in terms of compression depth (58.8% vs 98%, P < 0.05) and chest compression fraction (49.2% vs 60.8%, P < 0.05). Hand positioning in the layman video calls DA-CPR was less accurate in comparison to the healthcare personnel (90.2% vs 96.1%) but the result was not statistically significant (P = 0.24).
Conclusion: In our study, video call DA-CPR allows laymen to deliver CPR with better compression rate, chest recoil and hand placement compared to healthcare personnel. However, inadequate compression depth and low chest compression fraction in the video call DA-CPR group show that more study is needed to deliver effective instructions during the video call to improve in these areas.