What was the PAD Trial?
The Public Access Defibrillation Trial was a study looking at survival in patients who experienced an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Volunteers without medical training and without a traditional duty to respond to medical emergencies were trained to perform CPR. At one-half of the PAD Trial locations (e.g., apartment complexes, golf courses, airports, shopping malls, etc.), the volunteers were also trained to use an AED, and the facility was equipped with a sufficient number of AEDs to permit rapid response to a medical emergency.
