A mobile healthcare app called PulsePoint is making headlines this week for being credited with saving the life of a one month-old baby in Spokane, Washington.
The app empowers CPR-certified citizens to come to the rescue of their neighbors in need who are awaiting the arrival of emergency responders.
Local public safety agencies purchase the PulsePoint software as a service, but anyone who knows CPR and is willing to help can download the app and register themselves. When EMS dispatchers learn that someone is suffering a cardiac arrest in a public place and needs CPR, they send out an alert to app users in the vicinity at the same time that they dispatch medical responders.
App users then receive an alert with the address of the person in need, as well as the location of the nearest automated external defibrillator.
This week, news outlets in Washington reported that Spokane EMS dispatchers sent out an alert when they were notified that a one-month-old baby went into cardiac arrest at a local store. Just two blocks away, mechanic Jeff Olson’s phone lit up. The volunteer EMT raced down the street to the store, where he performed CPR on the infant, who survived and was cared for at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital.
About 700 communities across the country, from Jersey City to Santa Cruz, are using the app.
[Image credit: PulsePoint]
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