On December 12, after competing for more than one month, the CPR Heroes team from the DTU Faculty of Medicine were proclaimed winners of the 2021 Seed for Change 2021 contest, with their paper: “CPR and out-of-hospital survival rates”. Second and third prizes went to teams which also included students from the same faculty.
The CPR Heroes team receive the First prize
“Improving public health” was the contest topic, which is linked to the 3rd of the UN’s 17 SDGs: “Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all age groups”. The objective was to search for new ideas for the creation of a sustainable community and the contest was jointly organized by the Junior Chamber International (JCI) of Danang and the Danang Student Association.
JCI is a leading global network of citizens, aged from 18 to 40, committed to self-development and their contributions to society. It is a nonprofit organization and official partner of the United Nations, with world-famous members such as former US President Bill Clinton, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, former Japanese President Shinzo Abe, together with many other heads of state and global leaders.
The contest consisted of a competition, a series of training programs and a round-table discussion with experts to:
- Incubate and suggest resources for projects with potential sustainable impact
- Provide citizens with leadership development opportunities
- Promote initiative and social responsibility among young people in solving local social challenges
- Broaden public knowledge and provide information on special health topics
Ten papers of ideas and projects were received from DTU, the University of Danang, FPT University, the Danang University of Technology and Thu Books LLC and seven of them were selected for the final online round:
- “Germs of breath,” from Thu Books LLC and Gilio Office Uniforms
- “StudNet17”, from the Danang University of Technology, FPT University and Studnet17 Danang
- “The physical activity, according to heart rates, blood pressure and adaptive ECG of overweight and obese residents of Danang,” from DTU
- “Joining hands for the mental health of the elderly,” from DTU
- “Oral health care in Danang,” from DTU and the University of Danang
- “CPR and out-of-hospital survival rates,” from DTU
- “Dragonfly bites navel,” from DTU
In the finals, the teams had seven minutes to present their projects, then ten minutes to defend them and answer questions. The projects were graded based on presentation skills and Q&A (20%), problem identification (20%), solution quality (20%), implementation plans (20%) and solution quality (20%).
The CPR Heroes team included three fifth-year students from the DTU Faculty of Medicine, namely: Pham Thi Thanh Thao, Nguyen Thien Huong and Nguyen Vu Nhat Ha, their project was judged to be highly practical and won first prize.
They proposed to:
- Instruct a selected group experimentally about cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) techniques in general
- Expand the model to improve public awareness by publishing posters promoting first aid, with QR code access to instructive CPR videos for senior high schools, universities, colleges and companies
Second prize was awarded to the “Dragonfly bites navel” project, by team of the same name from the DTU Faculty of Medicine, suggesting basic swimming and first aid classes for 5 to 15 year-olds, to reduce drowning accidents.
Second prize
The joint DTU Faculty of Medicine and University of Danang School of Medicine & Pharmacy submission: “Oral health care for people in Danang,” by the Pretty Smile team, aimed to improve primary school students’ oral health.
Third prize
After winning first prize, Nguyen Vu Nhat Ha of CPR Heroes explained: “Before we took part in the contest, we learned about resuscitation during our Internal Pathology classes and realized that very few people know about CPR or how to perform it effectively. When cardiopulmonary arrest occurs, each minute that passes reduces the survival rate by 10%. After 8-10 minutes, oxygen-rich blood no longer reaches the vital organs, especially the brain, leading to death in another 5-10 minutes”.
“That’s the reason we wanted to improve the out-of-hospital survival rate, by improving the public awareness of CPR techniques. Firstly, we’ll spend about a year to start up our project and then expand the CPR training model into Danang. “I hope that, with what we’ve learned at DTU and our experience in the 2021 Seed for Change 2021 contest, we’ll be able to make a small contribution to the improvement of local health conditions.”
(Media Center)