Dr Rebecca Szabo highlights CPR and heart health disparities for women

Dr Rebecca Szabo, a PhD student in the Department of Critical Care, is gaining recognition for her groundbreaking research on gender disparities and provision of CPR. Results from aspects of Dr Szabo's PhD research "Implementation, Translation, and Simulation," have been featured in The Guardian and The Conversation.

CPR is a life-saving technique that significantly increases a patient's chances of survival. However, research has shown that people perceived as women are less likely to receive life-saving CPR after cardiac arrest and are also less likely to survive even when CPR is administered.

Dr Szabo's research highlights that one cause of this discrepancy may be the lack of diversity in the manikins used during training, which predominantly represent a male body type. As the lead of the Gandel Simulation Service at The Royal Women's Hospital, Dr Szabo noticed this gap when running maternal cardiac arrest training during pregnancy. She found that CPR manikins designed to represent bodies with breasts, were unavailable, prompting her team to fabricate their own.

“In the end, we purchased a chest plate with breasts online,” Dr Szabo explained. “It’s similar to what a drag performer might wear and goes on like a singlet. We put that on our manikin for training.”

Although the CPR compression technique is no different across body types, training on manikins that reflect a variety of body shapes "may help people feel more comfortable," Dr Szabo said.

Dr Szabo and her team's study is "the first of its kind to name this as a gender and human rights issue, linking it to business human rights and the commercial determinants of health.” She emphasizes the importance of considering gender diversity and body representation in healthcare and training to improve patient outcomes.

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