title: AED in Europe. Report on a survey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Based on the strategies for community defibrillation defined by a joint policy conference of ESC and ERC, we have conducted a survey to identify the current status of AED programmes in Europe.
  
  
  METHODS
  All registered visitors to the website of the ERC were contacted by e-mail and invited to participate in a web-based survey.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 983 usable responses, 899 came from 36 European countries, representing a total of 748 million inhabitants. In 11 countries AED use by non-physicians has been implemented partially. All but 3 countries reported that first-tier ambulances are equipped with defibrillators. In 13 countries everybody is allowed to use an AED and in 11 countries anybody who has been trained. In 14 countries there are a few community responder programmes, in 14 countries there are hardly any, and in 7 countries there are none. Thirteen countries have implemented a few on-site responder programmes; in 16 countries there are hardly any such programmes, and in 7 countries none. Programmes for home responders can hardly be found in 19 countries; in-hospital programmes exist in 7 countries nearly everywhere. Only 1 country reported that epidemiologic and/or economic evaluations are carried out nearly everywhere when planning AED programmes. Nationwide registries to collect data from resuscitation attempts have been set up in 4 countries. In 27 countries inventories for AEDs can be found here and there.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Much has been achieved concerning the provision and use of AEDs in Europe, but there is still a long way to go.
authors.affiliation: European Resuscitation Council, Drie Eikenstraat 661, 2650 Edegem, Belgium. jan.bahr@med.uni-goettingen.de
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bahr
authors.forename: Leo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bossaert
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Handley
authors.forename: Ruud
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Koster
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vissers
authors.forename: Koen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Monsieurs
mesh_terms: D047548:Defibrillators / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires