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Daily scan
Paramedic research, 24 September 2026
4 new paramedic and prehospital papers from the 24 September 2026 scan.
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Dispatcher CPR barriers delay bystander CPR, cut survival
Retrospective cohort of 3,263 transcribed Swedish 112 calls linked to the national cardiac arrest registry quantified barriers to dispatcher-assisted CPR after the dispatcher recognised arrest — 43.7% of calls hit at least one barrier (commonest: inability to move the patient), bystander CPR reached 85% in barrier-free calls but stayed below 50% with three or more, and any barrier was associated with lower ROSC (adjusted RR 0.89) and 30-day survival (adjusted RR 0.57).
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Night drone AED delivery feasible but workload high
Quasi-experimental mixed-methods study of 24 human-supervised drone flights delivering a 480 g CellAED over 877 m in a semi-urban area — all flights completed without safety incidents and night flight times matched day (mean ~140 s vs ~136 s, p=0.43), though pilots reported markedly higher cognitive workload and environmental complexity after dark.
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Governance gaps cripple Ethiopian prehospital care
Qualitative needs assessment using the WHO prehospital assessment tool across 15 interviews with EMS and health bureau leaders in Hawassa, Ethiopia identified six recurring barriers — infrastructure, medicines/equipment, communication, community perceptions, workforce and, cutting across all of them, unclear governance and accountability — leaving services functioning as interfacility transport rather than true prehospital care.
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Ambulance central to alcohol and self-harm pathways
A Scottish national cross-sectional study of 2.7 million unscheduled care pathways found 2.7% involved alcohol, drugs or self-harm, with the commonest journey being ambulance to ED to admission at a direct NHS cost of about £216.9 million.