Created by Richard Price, founder of the PulsePoint Foundation, the app alerts people trained and certified in CPR that someone nearby is going into cardiac arrest. When someone answers the alert, their phone displays a map of where the victim is and provides the exact location. The PulsePoint Respond app not only locates the victim, but also provides the location of the nearest automated external defibrillator to shock the victim’s heart back into rhythm.
As of late January, Price said there were 600,000-plus registered users that have activated the app 19,000 times for more than 7,500 cardiac arrest emergencies.
Fewer than 8 percent of people who go into cardiac arrest survive, according to the American Heart Association, and performing CPR right after cardiac arrest can double or triple the survival rate.
Price came up with the idea for the app while serving as fire chief for the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District in California, where he worked for 33 years. One of the most satisfying examples of PulsePoint’s success, he said, is the fact that it’s being included in the 2015 American Heart Association Guidelines, which mention the app and communities that have implemented the system.
“We have created an entirely new product category that is being compared with the importance of CPR and public access defibrillators — the third leg of the stool, bringing all necessary pre-arrival components together before responders arrive.”
