Imagine that you are in a restaurant having lunch with a few friends. You hear a siren in the distance and think to yourself, “I wonder where they are going?” The siren gets louder and closer, and then you actually see a fire engine approaching in the distance. Suddenly, surprisingly, the engine turns into the parking lot and parks right in front of the crowded restaurant where you’re eating. That’s when you learn that right next door, someone is unconscious after suffering a cardiac arrest. If you only knew, maybe you could have made a difference.

This scenario will likely be a thing of the past as the PulsePoint app gains widespread adoption. PulsePoint Respond is an innovative new location-aware phone application that empowers everyday citizens to provide life-saving assistance to victims of Sudden Cardiac Arrest. Communities can now use the application to dispatch CPR-trained citizens to major cardiac emergencies where the potential need for bystander CPR is high.

Notifications are made simultaneously with the dispatch of paramedics to anyone within the area that is CPR-trained and has indicated their willingness and ability to assist during an SCA emergency. These notifications are only made if the victim is in a public place and only to potential rescuers that are in the immediate vicinity of the emergency. When notifications do occur they intend to target potential citizen rescuers that are primarily within walking distance of the event.

At the time of need, users that have opted-in receive a push notification accompanied by a distinctive alert tone. The notification is followed by a map display showing the dispatched location of the emergency along with the precise location of the citizen rescuer – providing for easy navigation between the two. The map display also shows the exact location of the nearest AEDs. In many cases nationwide, nearby AEDs have not been used when they may have made a big difference. The application aims to address this type of failure by informing citizen rescuers where the nearest AED is located – in real-time and in context of their current location.