By Dr. Michael Sayre, MD, Medical Director for the Seattle Fire Department and PulsePoint and Professor of Emergency Medicine at University of Washington

The unsettling collapse of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin during a Monday Night Football game brought sudden cardiac arrest to the attention of millions of Americans. Surviving sudden cardiac arrest relies on immediate medical attention, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation and AED (automated external defibrillator) use. Mr. Hamlin was fortunate in that he was quickly surrounded by medical professionals armed with an emergency action plan, and experienced paramedics joined them within minutes. Now, even with the best, most rapid care, Americans are learning that recovery from cardiac arrest takes time.

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City of Palm Beach Gardens received a $5,000 grant for the purchase of public defibrillators.

The PulsePoint Foundation, a public non-profit 501(c)(3), announced today that Palm Beach Gardens Fire & Rescue (FL) has won the 2022 PulsePoint AED Contest, winning a $5,000 grant to purchase AEDs (automated external defibrillators) for their community.

The contest took place during the month of October, Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month, and was eligible to any community using PulsePoint AED to locate and register AEDs. Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue collectively registered 179 AEDs at locations throughout the city including schools, government buildings, local businesses and gyms. Once the newly registered AEDs are vetted by public safety personnel their location will be made available to emergency responders during cardiac emergencies.

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The PulsePoint Respond mobile phone application will increase community awareness of medical emergencies and alert and direct CPR-trained individuals nearby to cardiac arrest victim.

The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management and City officials today announced the launch of PulsePoint, a mobile phone application (PulsePoint app) designed to support public safety agencies increasing cardiac arrest survival rates through improved bystander performance and active resident support.

“Time is of the upmost importance when it comes to helping someone experiencing a cardiac arrest. The PulsePoint app provides this critical element: closing the time gap between when CPR is started,” said San Francisco Fire Department Chief Jeanine Nicholson. “We want anyone willing and able to conduct CPR on someone experiencing cardiac arrest to download the PulsePoint app. This way bystanders and emergency medical first responders can work together to save lives.”

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As the country prepares for a summer of excessive heat and drought, the Western Fire Chiefs Association (WFCA) introduces its Fire Map to provide near real-time information about active wildfires.

“The current climate situation is incredibly scary,” said Chief Mark Niemeyer, Board President of the WFCA and Fire Chief of the Boise Fire Department. “The WFCA is providing public access to definitive information around the paths of wildfires so that communities can quickly take action,” said Niemeyer.

The WFCA Fire Map pulls data from the US Forest Service via the National Interagency Fire Center IRWIN feed, and 911 Dispatch data via PulsePoint to track the location of the wildfire as they start and while they’re burning. The WFCA Fire Map is the first map of its kind to pull such data from 911 Dispatch in relevant areas.

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Goal to Turn Thousands into PulsePoint Civilian Responders

King County Fire Chiefs Association and Medic One Foundation today announced the county-wide launch of PulsePoint, a free life-saving mobile app that notifies users when someone nearby is in cardiac arrest and needs immediate help. The announcement highlights National CPR & AED Awareness Week, June 1-7, 2022.

"When a person goes into sudden cardiac arrest, every minute without CPR reduces their chance of survival, so immediate help from a bystander who can do CPR is critical," said Dr. Tom Rea, Emergency Medical Services Program Director for King County.

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County will receive $5,000 grant for the purchase of public defibrillators.

The PulsePoint Foundation, a public non-profit 501(c)(3), announced today that Fairfield County, Ohio has won the inaugural PulsePoint AED Contest, winning a $5,000 grant to purchase AEDs for public safety staff and/or the community. The contest took place during the month of October, Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month, and was eligible to any community using PulsePoint AED to locate and register AEDs. Fairfield County, with the help of Fairfield Medical Center’s Community Heart Watch Committee, collectively registered 238 AEDs at locations throughout the county including schools, government buildings, places of worship and sports centers. Once the newly registered AEDs are vetted by public safety personnel their location will be made available to emergency responders during cardiac emergencies.

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The third and latest RapidDeploy and PulsePoint integration provides community AED locations on RapidDeploy maps to provide telecommunicators visibility to nearby AEDs as part of the 9-1-1 workflow.

Today RapidDeploy, the industry's leading cloud-native emergency response platform, announces a new free integration with PulsePoint, a nonprofit whose public safety applications and partnerships aim to increase survivability from sudden cardiac arrests, to enable PulsePoint's automated external defibrillators (AED) registry to be used by call takers to see AEDs in proximity to 9-1-1 callers.

PulsePoint AED offers communities of all sizes a no-cost solution for registering and managing AEDs, which includes technical and marketing support.

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With your help dispatch center staff can inform 9-1-1 callers of nearby lifesaving devices.

In recognition of Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month, the PulsePoint Foundation will be holding a contest throughout the month of October to encourage AED location identification and registration so these life-saving devices can be disclosed to 9-1-1 dispatchers and those nearby during a cardiac emergency.

Anyone who registers an AED in October with the free PulsePoint AED app, or online at AED.new will be eligible to win one of ten $500 Amazon gift cards. Collectively, the community that registers the most AEDs will be granted $5,000 worth of new AEDs to provide to public safety staff or place in their community.

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CASE STUDY / APRIL 2021

Alaska’s Fairbanks North Star Borough sought to address the rural community challenges of low bystander engagement and slower response times in out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest response. As part of a comprehensive strategy that included participation in the C.A.R.E.S. Registry and Resuscitation Academy, bystander CPR training, CPR and AED awareness programs, and strategic AED placement, Fairbanks launched PulsePoint May 2019.

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Every day, people die when their heart stops pumping because of heart disease and other causes.

In the Fairbanks area alone, more than 50 people die annually from cardiac arrest. Many times, there are people nearby that are trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR. CPR can sustain a life in the crucial first few minutes following a cardiac arrest. The problem is that the people trained in CPR often aren’t aware that somebody nearby needs their help.

We are fortunate that in Fairbanks we have ambulances staffed with highly trained, well-equipped emergency medical technicians and paramedics, a first-class 911 system to dispatch them, and a superb emergency department at our community hospital. Even in the very best system, though, it takes several minutes for someone to dial 911 and for emergency medical personnel to arrive at the scene of the emergency.

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