If you saw a complete stranger having a cardiac arrest would you step in and help? In Sioux Falls the answer is yes. Hundreds of everyday citizens have already downloaded the Pulsepoint App and are just waiting to help save a life. In the KSFY Medical Minute Jake Iversen shows us how the program continues to grow in the Sioux Falls community.
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Readers may have noticed this morning that their geekiest politically oriented friends are freaking out like teenage girls at a Justin Bieber concert. Today, the big man in the White House signed a rare executive order that all federal data be made freely accessible in a form that can be utilized by software developers, lovingly known as “machine-readable format.” Below, we compiled a list of some of the coolest applications developed with government data and, below that, a brief explainer about why this new initiative matters.
1. Global Position System Data: If you’re a fan of Google Maps, then you can thank Ronald Reagan for releasing the government’s satellite data to digital cartographers. After Korean Airlines Flight 007 was notoriously gunned down over Soviet Airspace in 1983, the Gipper thought it was strategic for airlines to be able to locate any plane in real time. Now, GPS is used in everything from maps to Yelp.
2. Saving Lives: San Ramon, Calif., firefighters worked with local hackers to develop an iPhone app that automatically locates the nearest CPR-certified citizen to a heart-attack happening near them. And the potential for more life-saving apps is huge.
Read the full post by Gregory Ferenstein on TechCrunch.
One of the core goals of the President’s Safety Data Initiative is to empower first responders and the public with information to make the safest and smartest decisions when they need it. In support of this goal, there has been a proliferation of innovative public safety apps—a number of which have been highlighted at the OSTP-supported Safety Datapalooza—using open data from local governments and Federal agencies.
The Red Cross Hurricane and Earthquake apps, for example, put lifesaving information in the hands of people who live in or are visiting hurricane- and earthquake-prone areas, giving instant access to local information on what to do before, during, and after hurricanes or earthquakes. And the PulsePoint app empowers citizens trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to provide life‐saving assistance to heart attack victims by notifying those trained citizens when someone nearby is having a cardiac emergency. The app also directs citizen rescuers to the location of the closest publicly accessible Automated External Defibrillator.
Read the full post by Tom Power and Brian Forde on the White House website.
Alexandria, VA – Today the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International launched the Application Community – “AppComm” – a new website dedicated to public safety and emergency response apps for use by the general public, app developers, and first responders.
AppComm is the single, trusted online forum where public safety professionals, the general public, and app developers can rate and comment on apps, submit ideas for new apps to serve public safety needs, and suggest additional apps for inclusion on the site. The site provides clickable links to download the apps from external developer websites and app stores.
As the world’s largest organization of public safety communications professionals, APCO is lending its considerable collective expertise and reputation to create AppComm because it recognizes the importance of providing a platform that the public safety community can trust and rely upon to aggregate and develop the most effective apps for public safety and emergency response.
Read the full press release by APCO International in Public Safety Communications.
Do you know CPR? Are you willing to help save a life?
Well, a new tool could enable you to act in the event of an emergency.
When someone is going into cardiac arrest, every minute counts. That’s why an app called PulsePoint helps put trained citizens at the scene of an emergency.
This app could really be the future of rescue operations. The app uses GPS and directs citizen rescuers to the exact location of the person in need of assistance.
Read the full article and watch the news segment by Alexandra Bahou at WXYZ-TV Channel 7.
Heather Roms was inside her car near Pediatric Dental when she saw and heard the alert on her phone that someone nearby was having a cardiac emergency. The app gave her the address and location, and Roms quickly drove to Shari’s Restaurant, where a man was having a cardiac emergency.
A labor and delivery nurse who’s accustomed to using the most modern technology to save newborns in jeopardy relied on just her own skills to try and save a man’s life last week.
Heather Roms, 39, of West Linn, was just leaving her daughter’s dentist appointment about 9 a.m. March 27 on Southwest Town Center Loop in Wilsonville when she received an alert on her smartphone that someone nearby was having a cardiac emergency.
It was the first time she had seen the alert on her phone, and she guessed she must be pretty close to where it was taking place.
At first, the PulsePoint application showed only the address of the location where the emergency was happening. Those who subscribe to the app receive notification of the emergency at the same time as first responders.
In this instance, first responders were paramedics from Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue and AMR ambulance.
At first, Roms wondered whether she should respond, not knowing how instantaneously she received the alert.
Read the full article by Michelle Te at the Portland Tribune.
The innovative PulsePoint Foundation created a mobile app that connects the CPR trained members of a community with cardiac arrest victims reported to local 911 dispatch centers. The Mobile app can also track and give directions to the nearest AED (automated external defibrillator) to shock the heart back to life. Watch the MedicCast TV interview below with PulsePoint President Richard Price.
MedicCast TV is the video version of shows created for the weekly MedicCast podcast, special interview segments, and video shorts with EMS and Health Related Commentary by Jamie Davis, the Podmedic.
Over the last year I have had the privilege of working with a fair amount of health organizations wishing to enter the digital realm. As a result, I have performed quite a bit of research and literature review on the applicability of social media engagement and mobile technology in the public health field. The opportunities are of course tremendous, and most of the risks can be effectively mitigated through education/training as numerous proactive health organizations have demonstrated to date.
What I wanted to share in this post however, is the single most powerful example of mobile health utility that I have come across in my research to date. This app from the PulsePoint Foundation leverages crowdsourcing, geo-location (GPS), push-messaging, maps and social integration, all for one simple purpose, to save lives. I think every municipal EMS should eventually be integrated into something like this. Enjoy.
From Mike Kujawski’s blog on government, association and non-profit marketing in a Web 2.0 world.
Mobile app notifies registrants when CPR is needed
Richard Price had an idea that grew into a smartphone application, and then a foundation, that may very well change the way EMS responds to cardiac arrest calls. The idea will certainly save lives, and it all started at a deli over a pastrami and rye.
Birth of an App
“I was out to lunch and was sitting in a deli with a few other people when I heard sirens in the distance,” Price says. “The sirens got louder, and then they pulled up right in front of the deli where I was eating.”
It turned out that the EMS crews were responding to a cardiac arrest call in the building next door. “If I had known, I could have made a difference. I know CPR and I have an AED in my car,” Price says. The event made him think about his smartphone and how the device knew his location and could tell someone else. “The idea came that we could possibly notify someone who was nearby an event using his or her phone,” he says.
That was three years ago, and the result of that event, and Price’s subsequent idea, has been the creation of PulsePoint, which was launched in 2012. Though the technology is sophisticated, taking hundreds of hours and many people to bring the idea to fruition, the actual PulsePoint app is simple. Users who are trained in CPR and have registered with the system as willing to assist in an emergency cardiac arrest situation will be notified on their smartphone if someone nearby is having a cardiac arrest.
Read the full article by Cynthia Kincaid on JEMS.
An Oregon citizen, alerted to a cardiac arrest at a Wilsonville restaurant by a special signal on her smartphone, became the first citizen responder to arrive at the scene of a medical emergency on Wednesday using the PulsePoint alert notification system.
Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue in Tigard, along with American Medical Response, were dispatched to a cardiac arrest at Shari’s Restaurant at 9:02 a.m. in Wilsonville. Simultaneously, TVF&R’s PulsePoint mobile app notified three nearby citizen responders that someone near their locations needed CPR.
Heather Roms, a registered nurse for Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, was leaving a nearby business when she received the alert and responded to the restaurant. Upon arriving, she began hands-only CPR until EMS crews arrived.
Read the full article on Firehouse.com.
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