Recruiting

Emergency Drone Delivery

Sponsor:

Duke University

Code:

NCT06229418

Conditions

Cardiac Arrest

Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

DFR AED Pilot Program

Study Details

Brief summary:

The overall goal of this project is to design, develop, and pilot test an emergency healthcare drone delivery system suitable for rural communities that can deliver AEDs to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) locations more rapidly than can be achieved with current first responder and EMS systems. The goal is to determine whether this method of AED delivery can be achieved rapidly enough to justify a future clinical trial directly testing its ability to improve OHCA survival.

Conditions

Cardiac Arrest

Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Study ID

NCT06229418

Start date

Sep 8, 2025

Status verified date

Jul, 2026

Completion date

Mar 31, 2027

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Mar 31, 2027

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients 18 years of age or older in the CARES registry who suffer cardiac arrest before arrival of a 911-responder of non-traumatic cause, including patients who receive an AED shock by a bystander prior to the arrival of 911 responders.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients in the CARES registry who have a traumatic cause of cardiac arrest.

Study Design

Enrollment

128 participants

Anticipated

Intervention Model

Single group

Primary purpose

Health Services Research

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: DFR AED Program

Real-time and simulated out-of-hospital cardiac arrests that occur across 6 communities (4 rural, 2 urban)

Interventions

DFR AED Pilot Program

Integrate AED drone delivery into an existing FAA-approved drone-as-first-responder programs

Primary outcome measure

  • Time interval difference between AED arrival of drones versus law/fire/EMS arrival to the OCHA scene [ Time Frame: 6 months (Aim 3a) ]
  • Time interval difference between AED arrival of drones versus law/fire/EMS arrival to the OCHA scene [ Time Frame: 15 months (Aim 3c) ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Leo Brothers, MPH

919-641-3555joseph.l.brothers@duke.edu

Lauren Wilverding

lauren.wilverding@duke.edu

Locations

Forsyth County

Recruiting

Clemmons, North Carolina, United States, 27012

Contacts

Leo Brothers, MPH

919-668-8322joseph.l.brothers@duke.edu

Lauren Wilverding

lauren.wilverding@duke.edu

More Information

Sponsor

Duke University

Last update posted

Sep 3, 2026

Last verified

Jul, 2026

Keywords

  • Drone
  • Automated External Defibrillator

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Duke University on 2026-09-03.