Smartphone App Empowers Citizens to Help in Case of Cardiac Emergency

Earlier this month, UF Health announced the launch of a potentially life-saving smartphone app throughout Alachua County. PulsePoint Respond alerts users when a cardiac emergency occurs near them, giving citizens a chance to save lives.

Funded by the Jerome H. Modell, MD, Professorship of Anesthesiology in the Department of Anesthesiology, the initiative was a collaboration among several groups within Alachua County. UF physicians Nikolaus Gravenstein, MD, of the Department of Anesthesiology, and Torben Becker, MD, PhD, of the Department of Emergency Medicine, worked with several agencies including the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, Alachua County Fire Rescue, and Gainesville Fire Rescue to bring PulsePoint to the community.

Alachua County joins over 3,300 communities that have launched PulsePoint. The app was designed to save as many lives as possible by increasing the chance that cardiac arrest victims will receive early intervention, which can double or triple chances of survival. It alerts users when a 9-1-1 call center reports a cardiac emergency within a quarter-mile radius of them. Following directions from the app, the user is then able to help by locating the person in need of help and beginning chest compressions.

PulsePoint has greatly increased cardiac arrest survival rates where it has been implemented, in some cases even doubling them. With the abundance of healthcare professionals in the Alachua County area, the collaborators who brought PulsePoint to the community expect to see great increases in the community’s survival rates.

For more details, check out the full announcement from UF Health.