What is PulsePoint?
PulsePoint is a 911-connected mobile phone application that allows users to view and receive alerts on calls being responded to by fire departments and emergency medical services. The app's main feature, and where its name comes from, is that it sends alerts to users while dispatchers are sending the call to emergency crews.
What is the goal of PulsePoint?
PulsePoint aims to initiate CPR earlier and more often as well as increase the use of automated external defibrillators (AED), before emergency responders arriving on the scene increasing the chance of survival.
How does PulsePoint work?
PulsePoint is integrated directly into the public safety communications center. When a call taker determines CPR may be needed, an alert is simultaneously sent to nearby app subscribers with the dispatch of emergency responders.
What is PulsePoint AED?
PulsePoint AED is an effective tool to help build the public AED registry. AEDs managed using PulsePoint AED are accessible to emergency dispatchers and disclosed to emergency responders, including nearby individuals trained in CPR. You can help even before a life is in danger by easily identifying public access AEDs throughout your community. Direct citizen participation can also help create greater location awareness and mindfulness of the important role AEDs play in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival.
What is an AED?
An AED, or Automated External Defibrillator, is used to help those experiencing sudden cardiac arrest. It is a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use, medical device that can analyze the heart's rhythm and, if necessary, deliver an electrical shock, or defibrillation, to help the heart re-establish an effective rhythm.
Why are AEDs important?
When a cardiac emergency strikes, finding an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) can help save a life. But that takes knowing where AEDs are located. In a cardiac event for every minute that the person in need goes without medical intervention their survival rate decreases by 10%.
What is Cardiac Arrest?
Cardiac arrest is the abrupt loss of heart function in a person who may or may not has been diagnosed with heart disease. It can come on suddenly, or in the wake of other symptoms. Cardiac arrest is often fatal if appropriate steps are not taken immediately.
Does the PulsePoint app raise and HIPPA or privacy concerns?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects the privacy of individually identifiable health information. On a ‘CPR Needed’ notification, the app reports only an address (in a public place) and a business name, if available. Individually identifiable health information, such as name, birth date, or Social Security Number are not reported or known to the PulsePoint application.
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