Company Announcements

Confidence to Administer Life-Saving Aid Rises to 74% with Guidance from a Nearby Coach, Yet Many Don’t Know AEDs Provide It. ZOLL’s Anyone Can Help.™ Campaign Aims to Bridge the Gap.

CHELMSFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep. 23, 2025-- In a public cardiac emergency, when seconds count, being familiar with CPR may not be enough to inspire bystander action. In advance of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) Awareness Month, a new national survey of more than 2,000 American adults points to a critical factor in bystander intervention: confidence to act under pressure.

The survey was fielded by The Harris Poll on behalf of ZOLL®, an Asahi Kasei company that manufactures medical devices and related software solutions, including automated external defibrillators (AEDs), as part of its Anything Can Happen. Anyone Can Help.™ campaign. The campaign aims to close the gap between CPR awareness and action by educating the public that AEDs do more than deliver a shock; they empower bystanders with step-by-step instructions in a cardiac emergency. As a leader in the AED market, ZOLL distinguishes its devices with clear audio and visual prompts and real-time corrective feedback to guide high-quality CPR, an approach shown to improve survival rates and long-term outcomes.¹

Survey Highlights: Real-Time CPR “Coaching” Increases Confidence
Survey results confirm this need for guidance:

• While 65% of Americans claim they would be confident performing CPR, survey results indicate confidence to administer life-saving aid (like CPR) rises to 74% if real-time coaching is available.
• 83% say easy to follow instructions and feedback would help them stay calm in a crisis.

A Built-in “Coach” May Be Nearby and Knowing That Helps Build Confidence
If an AED is available during a cardiac emergency, then a “coach” is already nearby. While misperceptions about AEDs still cause hesitation, understanding of how these devices work builds public confidence to act in an emergency.

• More than half of Americans (53%) believe you need special training or prior experience to save someone’s life. In actuality, AEDs are intentionally designed with easy-to-follow audio and visual prompts so anyone can follow along and help save a life.
• Roughly one third of Americans are surprised to learn important, basic facts about AEDs: AEDs will not deliver a shock unless needed (30%), users can’t hurt someone with an AED (30%) and AEDs guide high-quality CPR with feedback like “push harder” or “stop compressions” (29%).
• Encouragingly, public confidence in AED use is rising: 52% of Americans now say they feel confident using an AED, up from 46% in the 2024 survey.
• Confidence to use an AED in an emergency nearly triples among those familiar with these lifesaving devices (77%) compared to those unfamiliar (26%).

Youth Sports: Confidence vs. Preparedness
The need for greater AED understanding is especially important in youth sports, where sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in young athletes.² Yet many parents assume safeguards are already in place:

• 57% of parents (with kids under 18) wrongly believe all youth coaches are required to have CPR and AED training.
• 50% of parents believe all youth sports teams have access to a team AED, yet most U.S. states still do not specifically mandate teams to have one.
• 53% of parents do not know whether their child's sports practice, meet, or game facility is equipped with AEDs.

“The survey confirms what we’ve long understood: real-time coaching inspires confidence,” said Elijah White, President of ZOLL’s Acute Care Technology division. “ZOLL AEDs provide that guidance, supporting anyone in those critical moments to turn hesitation into action when every second counts.”

ZOLL’s Anyone Can Help™ Campaign: Inspiring Action Through Awareness
Building on this year’s findings, ZOLL’s Anything Can Happen. Anyone Can Help.™ campaign is expanding its reach with new collaborators and voices. Professional football player and cardiac arrest survivor Damar Hamlin will be joined in October by college and professional athletes to spread the message more widely. Visit AnyoneCanHelp.com for a free AED Community Activation Kit and tools to help communities build confidence and preparedness.

See the 2025 Harris Poll for ZOLL Fact sheet here. Raw data tabs are available upon request.

Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online in the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of ZOLL Medical from May 27–29, 2025, among 2,095 adults ages 18+. 2024 data is pulled from a similar Harris Poll among 2,046 adults ages 18+ from May 2-6, 2024. For both surveys, the sample data is accurate to within +/- 2.5 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact Marcia Gray (mgray@graycreate.com).

About ZOLL Medical
ZOLL, an Asahi Kasei company, develops and markets medical devices and software solutions that help advance emergency care and save lives, while increasing clinical and operational efficiencies. With products for defibrillation and cardiac monitoring, circulation enhancement and CPR feedback, supersaturated oxygen therapy, data management, ventilation, therapeutic temperature management, and sleep apnea diagnosis and treatment, ZOLL provides a comprehensive set of technologies that help clinicians, EMS and fire professionals, as well as lay rescuers, improve patient outcomes in critical cardiopulmonary conditions. For more information, visit www.zoll.com.

Copyright © 2025 ZOLL Medical Corporation. All rights reserved. ZOLL and Anything Can Happen. Anyone Can Help. are registered trademarks of ZOLL Medical Corporation and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. Asahi Kasei is a registered trademark of Asahi Kasei Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

¹ https://cpr.heart.org/en/resuscitation-science/high-quality-cpr
² Sudden cardiac arrest in athletes and strategies to optimize preparedness - PMC

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Marcia Gray, Gray Communications
617-990-7720
mgray@graycreate.com

Source: ZOLL Medical