MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Nimit Desai, BA
Medical Student and Affiliate Researcher
UC San Diego School of Medicine and Qualcomm Institute
John W. Ayers, PhD, MA
Vice Chief of Innovation, Head of AI, and Professor
UC San Diego School of Medicine, Altman Clinic and Translational Research Institute, and Qualcomm Institute
Christopher Horvat, MD, MHA, MSIT
Associate Professor of Critical Care Medicine, Pediatrics, Biomedical Informatics, and Clinical & Translational Science
Associate Director, Safar Center for Resuscitation Research
More than 350,000 Americans go into cardiac arrest outside a hospital every year, yet only about 2% of the population is certified in CPR. When someone collapses, most bystanders call 911 and wait — and even when dispatchers walk callers through CPR instructions, it often takes nearly three minutes before chest compressions begin. Researchers at UC San Diego set out to close that gap with AI.
The result is ChatCPR, an open-source AI system built on actual 911 dispatcher training protocols and decades of CPR evidence. In head-to-head comparisons using real, de-identified 911 calls, ChatCPR outperformed human dispatchers on every measure — scoring 15 percentage points higher on basic steps and 36 points higher on advanced steps.
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: There are over 178,000 published articles about AI in medicine. But "when will AI actually save lives?" We didn't have a good answer. So that question became the starting point.
We looked at where AI could make the biggest immediate difference, not in documentation or billing or any of that, but in a moment where seconds literally determine whether someone lives or dies. And the answer was obvious: out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
More than 350,000 Americans go into cardiac arrest outside a hospital every year. Yet, only about 2% of us are certified in CPR. When someone collapses from an arrest, most people just call 911 and wait, and wait, and wait. And even when dispatchers eventually walk callers through CPR instructions, they're juggling multiple tasks and it often takes nearly 3 minutes before chest compressions even start. We thought AI could close that gap.
