[Defibrillation with an automatic external defibrillator outside the hospital: a life-saving, but restricted treatment?]. / Defibrilleren met een automatische externe defibrillator buiten het ziekenhuis: een levensreddende, maar voorbehouden handeling?

Application of the automatic external defibrillator can improve the chance of success during resuscitation of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, because lay persons can defibrillate awaiting the arrival of the ambulance. Defibrillation is mentioned in the Dutch Individual Health Care Professionals Act as a precluded action. Defibrillation with an automatic external defibrillator should be excluded from the list of precluded actions, because application is almost 100% safe and because the subject is not within the scope of the law which is restricted to professional activities and non-emergency actions. Defibrillation with an automatic external defibrillator is acceptable.

[Internal and external methods of quality control]. / Méthodes internes et externes de contrôle de la qualité.

An overview is given over theories and methods in quality assurance, especially in health care. There is a long way to go to improve systematically the quality of care, even in high industrialized countries. Moreover it is postulated that many of the problems of modern health care need a governmental and institutional quality policy to be solved.