Hands-Only CPR Kiosks Debuting at Airports Near You

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In my role at the American Heart Association, I travel on a regular basis and spend lots of time in airports waiting to catch flights. It’s amazing the amount of foot traffic that airports see on a daily basis. Approximately 176,000 passengers pass through my hometown airport, Dallas-Ft. Worth, every day.

Thinking about the number of people who sit for long periods of time at airports played a role in addressing the AHA’s ambitious goals for training people in the lifesaving skill of CPR.

Here’s the hard truth: 90 percent of people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests die before medical responders arrive on the scene. This is not only true internationally, but particularly in the United States. When the AHA set its 2020 goal to double survival from cardiac arrest, the former EMT in me became fixated on finding a solution to improve survival within those first few minutes of cardiac arrest.

The answer is simple–everyone needs to know CPR and anyone can learn this lifesaving skill. This tactical solution proved more challenging until we took inspiration from a social experiment conducted in Sweden. Social scientists there took a look at a fun way to encourage people to use the stairs instead of an escalator. After hearing about this experiment, I started thinking whether we could take that same concept and create something fun and engaging in a high-traffic location that would demystify CPR.

Fast forward four years. We installed our first Hands-Only CPR kiosk at DFW Airport in 2013. Each kiosk offers a touch screen that shows a brief video introducing the two steps of Hands-Only CPR. Users can then take a practice session followed by a 30-second CPR test. The kiosk provides feedback about the depth and rate of compressions and proper hand placement.

To date, nearly 25,000 people have learned Hands-Only CPR from this kiosk.

Actress Elisabeth Rohm on camera discussing the importance of Hands-Only CPR.
Actress Elisabeth Rohm on camera discussing the importance of Hands-Only CPR.

We’re grateful that Anthem Foundation sees the lifesaving potential in these kiosks. Thanks to their generous support, we are proud to announce the installation of seven new kiosks across the country in high-traffic locations:

Five Airports

  • Chicago O’Hare International
  • Indianapolis International
  • Las Vegas’ McCarran International
  • Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International
  • Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall

Two Office Buildings

  • Global Center for Health Innovation in Cleveland, Ohio
  • Anthem’s office in Washington D.C.

As you wait for your next flight, you could learn how to save a life in about five minutes by visiting one of these Hands-Only CPR kiosks. We know of at least one life saved as a result of someone learning CPR on the kiosk – a story that was recently profiled on the syndicated talk show The Doctors.

Launch of our new kiosk at Chicago O'hare International Airport.
Launch of our new kiosk at Chicago O’hare International Airport.

Matt Lickenbrock, a University of Dayton student who saved the life of a fellow student struck by lightning by performing Hands-Only CPR, used the kiosk as a boredom buster during a three-hour layover at DFW Airport. He sums the experience up neatly: “I never thought I’d be in the situation to use it. No one ever does. But I knew I was doing what I was trained to do.”

To learn more about these new kiosks, visit our newsroom story here.

To learn more about CPR, please visit heart.org/cpr.

52 thoughts on “Hands-Only CPR Kiosks Debuting at Airports Near You”

  2. How can I get purchase information for the CPR Kiosk for our EMS Community Outreach department here in Baltimore City?

  7. My name is Allison Slankard. I am a pending Masters of Science in Nursing graduate from the University of Arkansas. My scholarly project is focusing on AED education in the college setting. We are the largest university in the state with our most recent class total over 27,000. I would love to have our school be the first college to employ this device. We have a high traffic area called The Union that most students in the university enter in at some point every week. I love this forward thinking idea and how it removes the fear behind helping

    • Hello Allison, thank you for reaching out. I’ve sent your message to appropriate staff members who will be reaching out to you. Be on the lookout for an email from Tonja Abel and/or Brenda Clevenger.

      • Brad,

        I am a nurse at a large, teaching hospital in Northern NJ. We are interested in placing one of these machines in our lobby. Would you please have someone contact me?

        Thank you!

        Heather (heather.linsalata@gmail.com)

  8. Good morning,

    I would also like some information regarding a kiosk station for our employees, can you please contact me regarding the potential use of the CPR hands only Kiosk

  9. I would like to request information about obtaining the hands only cpr kiosk. I work closely with the cardiac and stroke patient population and found this to be a much needed skill. This is an excellent educational opportunity that could improve outcomes in our area. Please have a AHA representative contact me in regards to obtaining a kiosk for the benefit of our community.

  12. Hello, our government organization, located in Washington, DC, would like to know if we can visit the Anthem office in DC to get a demo of this kiosk.

  14. Hello

    It would be great if you could contact me with some more information regarding the Kiosk.

    Thank you

  16. What an interesting idea. Although it would never replace the expert training you would receive in a professional training course for basic First Aid and CPR, I think this is a great start for generating interest among people that may have never thought they needed to learn CPR. With so many people frequenting the airport on a daily basis, I find this to be a wonderful tool. I would like to know however how much it costs, if at all, to view the video and perform the hands-on test. Thank you for sharing this information and letting people know the importance

  17. I am the EMS Officer for a City Fire Dept who is attempting to reach out to a college of 40,000+ students and get them CPR trained. We are also attempting to become a Heartsafe Community. Id like information on how we can purchase one or more of these. Please put me in touch with someone who can assist. Thanks

  18. I am curious about how to purchase a CPR kiosk for potential placement in municipal recreation centers. Could you please send me information?

  23. I am developing a proposal for a hospital to advertise in an airport. I would love to make this a part of it. Please send me pricing and any other information you can for me to see if this type of a display would fit the need.

  24. can someone please send me some information in regards to setting up a hands free kiosk CPR display in Cebu, Philippians.

  26. I would love to know more information/cost of the kiosk please! Thank you so much, this is a wonderful idea!

  28. Hi. I work in for a fire department in a city with one of the largest universities in the US. Can someone please contact me about how to go about getting one of these for the college. Possibly for our airport as well? Thanks!

  36. I would love to know how much this kiosk would cost and other costs associated with maintaining the kiosk so I can ask the hospitals about getting one and placing by the front door to promote educating the public. If schools have one by the office / front door, kids could learn CPR as well. Churches, shopping centres, fitness centres, stadiums and coliseums, and other public buildings should have them, along with an AED.

  37. I understand the concept, and I use all the airports on this list. As I am writing this I am sitting next to the system in Baltimore. What made me look for this article was the fact that absolutely nobody seems to care about the system. The audio make some people look but not even slow down. Great concept but not as successful as it may have been thought. Mostly because people don’t want to be seen pumping a rubber chest in public. I am not sure who the marketing team behind this idea was but I can say that they were happy to market a product they had no clue about. Just a thought.

  38. Can you please contact me , Would like to start a move to install the kiosk in Tel Aviv international airport.
    I’m a EMT-P & A.C.L.S instructor
    zivpio@walla.com
    Thank you

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  47. … also interested in finding out the cost for one of these. Judging by the previous number of requests for pricing sounds like there is some significant volume discount. We’re interested in purchasing one for our School district and then will rotate it through the schools. Like others previously mentioned, its not a replacement for formal training but we hope to inspire people to get trained.

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