The New York Fire Department recently deployed a mobile CPR training unit that offer residents free CPR classes in all five of the city's boroughs, said John McFarland, chief of EMS field services. The goal of the program is to increase the number of people in New York City trained in bystander CPR, he said.

"We have seen that bystander CPR continues to improve in the city and is making a difference is cardiac-arrest survival," he said.

McFarland said the department's mobile CPR unit started five years ago after the department partnered on a major study in conjunction with the New York Medical College on cardiac-arrest survival in New York City. It reviewed a full years of survival data, including hospital outcome data.

"What we found was that 80% of cardiac arrests happen in the home," he said. "So we thought that concentrating on bystander CPR would be a great benefit to cardiac arrest survival in New York City."

Six EMTs and one officer train participants in basic CPR skills. Students follow along using the CPR Anytime Personal Learning Kit, which features an instructional DVD and an inflatable mannequin. Participants take the kit home at the end of the 1-hour class and are asked to use it to teach five of their family members and friends how to perform CPR.

McFarland said fire chiefs who want to implement a similar program can determine the funding stream for the kits, which can be the biggest hurdle.

"It's all money we raised through the FDNY foundation, about $100,000 a year spent on the kits," he said.