Priority Dispatch and PulsePoint Announce Global Strategic Partnership

Industry Leaders Team Up to Help Emergency Communication Centers Connect Citizen Responders with Lifesaving AEDs

Priority Dispatch: Adam Hinckley, (800) 363-9127

PulsePoint: Shannon Smith, (773) 339-7513

NEW ORLEANS (April 12, 2017)—Priority Dispatch Corp. (“PDC”) and the PulsePoint Foundation (“PulsePoint”) today announced a global, strategic partnership that will optimize the way Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMD) pinpoint and communicate the location of automated external defibrillators (AED) during time-critical cardiac emergencies. Through this partnership, the organizations unveiled integration plans that allow EMDs to inform callers of the exact location of nearby AEDs directly within existing medical dispatch protocols and with no changes to workflow. The announcement was made at Navigator, the annual premier conference for police, fire, medical and nurse triage dispatch, hosted by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED.)

“With this new integration, the dispatcher may no longer need to ask if there is an AED available when a caller reports an unconscious, unresponsive victim,” said Richard Price, President of the California-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit PulsePoint Foundation. “The EMD will now be shown a distance-ordered list of all nearby devices directly from the PulsePoint global registry.”

Each year in the U.S., there are approximately 360,000 Emergency Medical Services (EMS)-assessed cardiac arrests outside of a hospital and on average, less than 10 percent of victims survive. Communities with comprehensive AED programs that include CPR and AED training for rescuers have achieved survival rates of nearly 40 percent for cardiac arrest victims.

"Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) when applied early in cardiac arrest can more than double survival," said Bryan McNally, MD, Executive Director of the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) Program. “Although less than 12 percent of cardiac arrests that occur in public receive bystander AED treatment more than 33 percent of these patients survive. Routinely making lay responders more aware of public AEDs has the potential to save thousands of lives each year nationally."

Although AED availability in public places is increasing, their use remains negligible. Low utilization has been attributed partly to citizen rescuers being unfamiliar with the devices and unaware of their location. Unfortunately, most EMDs don’t have access to AED installations and are unable to tell a caller where the nearest one might be.

“The routine use of AEDs is predicated on both the EMD and the caller’s ability to locate and retrieve the device promptly for immediate use at the patient’s side,” said Jeff Clawson, MD, inventor of the Priority Dispatch System and co-founder of the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch. “This is greatly enhanced by the smooth collaboration of both the medical priority dispatch system, MPDS, when used in ProQA and PulsePoints’ enhanced AED registry and responder program. This will undoubtedly improve SCA survival significantly for the better.”

About Priority Dispatch Corporation

Priority Dispatch Corp.™ (PDC) is the world leader in providing research-based protocol solutions to emergency call centers in medical, fire, police, and nurse triage disciplines. For more than 35 years, EMS and 911 agencies have used the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS), first with cards and now in software. It has been translated into 21 languages and dialects and is currently in place in 46 countries. Find more information at prioritydispatch.net.

About International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED)

The IAED is a non-profit standard-setting organization promoting safe and effective emergency dispatch services world-wide. With more than 65,000 members, It is comprised of four allied Academies for medical, fire, police, and nurse triage dispatching. The IAED supports best practices through education, training, quality assurance, certification, accreditation, and research. It’s annual conference, Navigator, attracts more than 1,200 dispatchers, educators, and leaders from around the world. Learn more at: emergencydispatch.org.

About the PulsePoint Foundation

PulsePoint is a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through the use of location-aware mobile devices, PulsePoint is building applications that work with local public safety agencies to improve communications with citizens, empowering them to help reduce the millions of annual deaths from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). Learn more at pulsepoint.org or join the conversation at Facebook and Twitter. The free app is available for download on iTunes and Google Play.

About Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Although a heart attack can lead to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), the two are not the same. SCA is when the heart malfunctions and suddenly stops beating unexpectedly, whereas a heart attack is when blood flow to the heart is blocked, but the heart continues to beat. Each year, nearly 360,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur, making it the leading cause of death in the United States. Survival rates nationally for SCA are nearly eight percent, but delivery of CPR can sustain life until paramedics arrive by maintaining vital blood flow to the heart and brain. However, only about a third of SCA victims receive bystander CPR. Without CPR, brain damage or death can occur in minutes. The average EMS response time is nine minutes, even in urban settings; after 10 minutes there is little chance of successful resuscitation. The American Heart Association estimates that effective bystander CPR, provided immediately after SCA, can double or triple a person’s chance of survival.

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