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Lowlands Saves Lives
As representatives of the cardiology department Radboudumc, Marc Brouwer and Joris Nas look back on the 3-day Lowlands festival with great satisfaction. The Lowlands Saves Lives Trial was an overwhelming success with the inclusion of 383 festival attendees in a randomized study. Participants were randomly allocated to a 20-min CPR training either via the Lifesaver app, or via the traditional method.
"Every week there are more than 300 people in the Netherlands who suddenly suffer a cardiac arrest," he says. "The first 6 minutes after a cardiac arrest are important for survival. Early CPR increases survival chances up to twofold. The free app offers easy access and a low-threshold for people to learn CPR. We will now analyze the results of the two educational approaches. We expect the outcomes in September/October."
These figures give a sound foundation for the results expected later this year. We expect that the outcomes will provide insights into new CPR training methods and may contribute to National, European and American Guidelines. For more details we refer to clinicaltrials.gov.
What’s in your pants?
The other study at the Lowlands festival was called “What’s in your pants?” Participants of the study filled out an anonymous questionnaire about their genitalia, and how satisfied they are with them. The 3- day festival generated 1472 completed questionnaires, which means that 1 in 36 or nearly 3 percent of all Lowlands visitors participated.
The results will allow doctors to better advise their patients, as well as parents of children with a variation in their genitalia, on further treatment such as surgery. Often it is thought that surgery is necessary if genitalia are not ‘normal,’ but with this study the doctors can offer insight into what is considered ‘normal’ or ‘acceptable’ in larger groups of people. Surgery, then, becomes a choice rather than the only option to be ‘normal.’
