In the U.S. - there are 200 cardiac arrests per year on the 5,000 passenger aircrafts in service - installing an automated external defibrillator (AED) on a single plane and training crew to use it costs $3,000 annually - if a plane has an AED on board then 16% of those who have cardiac arrest survive (where survival means resuscitated, sent to hospital and then discharged from hospital and for simplicity we ignore hospital treatment costs) compared to a 1% survival rate if no AED is on the plane. - survivors live on average 10 years - on average survivors enjoy a quality of life of 0.5 (on a 0-1 scale) - a year of life in perfect health is valued to be worth $80,000.
(a) Calculate the cost of AEDs per year of life saved.
(b) Calculate the cost of AEDs per QALY.
(c) Does a cost-benefit analysis support installing AEDs on U.S. aircraft? Explain your answer.