iPhone App now sends users nearby a cardiac arrest a notification

[lampnyter]

What do you think about this

http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/25/ne...-alive/?icid=maing|main5|dl14|sec1_lnk3|39135

The only way this would ever work and be helpful is if only actual first responders/health care professionals were allowed to use this because i could only imagine all the kids who would get this app to try and watch some guy die. You should definitely have to get some sort of proof of your skills before getting this app.

 

[vquintessence]

I find it worthless across the board for pedestrians & medical personnel alike. What is the definition of "close proximity"? Would I get a blip for somebody in cardiac arrest that is a mile away? Should I now hop into my vehicle and drive like a bat out of hell, to "beat the ambulance" (nevermind the usually speedy arrival of LEO) and charge into some strangers home uninvited?

 

[adamjh3]

Absolutely useless and a plague for us. As if we don't have enough issues with bystanders on scene.

 

[lightsandsirens5]

I see it as just begging for chaos at the scene of a cardiac arrest and in the surrounding area.

Not only will we not have off duty EMT-FR Rickey Rescue, who saves lives every time he steps out the door, to deal with on scene, but we will also have every iPhone user within 3 miles either on scene or trying to get there and causing accidents.

 

[lampnyter]

I find it worthless across the board for pedestrians & medical personnel alike. What is the definition of "close proximity"? Would I get a blip for somebody in cardiac arrest that is a mile away? Should I now hop into my vehicle and drive like a bat out of hell, to "beat the ambulance" (nevermind the usually speedy arrival of LEO) and charge into some strangers home uninvited?

Its only for public places, not somebodies home.

 

[Lady_EMT]

I have enough problems with a ton of first responders running around onscene, I don't need iPhone users in my area thinking they're entitled to run to the rescue.

That app has "Bad Idea" written all over it.

 

[usalsfyre]

Why does it not surprise me IAFC is mixed up in this debacle.

 

[fast65]

It's only January, so why are they pulling an April Fools joke on us already?

This is a horrible idea, now with every cardiac arrest, we'll have at least 3 MVC's within a 3 mile proximity. Now everyone who saw that "hands only CPR" commercial will think they're trained in it and as a result we'll end up with a bunch people fighting over who gets to beat on an arrest victims chest.

EDIT: Lampntyer, you totally commented on it

 

[firetender]

The machine will have to know what kind of an emergency it is. There was no mention of how "it" would be dispatched. Does that mean, like a scanner, you'd just have a channel that broadcasts EVERY emergency in your vicinity? A "man down" could be an MI or a GSW or insulin-related. Grab that AED, will ya? If all ya got is a hammar, everything's a nail.

And I agree...WHO will be sent there? Not Doctors, that's for sure. In fact, if notified there's a man down on 5th St. and 10th Ave., within 10 seconds response time, there won't be a single Doc closer than 6th or 16th!

Maybe the Lawyers would get more use out of it!

 

[fast65]

Firetender has a good point, how will they determine what type of call it is? I mean we could have someone starting compressions on a person with a diabetic emergency because they thought they didn't have a pulse. I see more harm than good coming from this.

 

[lampnyter]

It's only January, so why are they pulling an April Fools joke on us already?

This is a horrible idea, now with every cardiac arrest, we'll have at least 3 MVC's within a 3 mile proximity. Now everyone who saw that "hands only CPR" commercial will think they're trained in it and as a result we'll end up with a bunch people fighting over who gets to beat on an arrest victims chest.

EDIT: Lampntyer, you totally commented on it

I couldnt resist lol.

 

[fast65]

I couldnt resist lol.

Haha, temptation got to me as well

 

[LucidResq]

I don't get the point. As dispatchers we already walk people through compression-only CPR. They don't have to be trained. It may not be ideal, but it's immediate and probably better than having 8 random people who probably don't know what they're doing show up and start doing something 5-10 minutes after the call has already been made.

The only element that would be potentially a good idea is the part about locating nearby AEDs. That way people who are already there and aware of the emergency can more easily locate an AED in an unfamiliar location.

 

[LucidResq]

I'd also like to point out that in medical emergencies in public, it's amazing how nurses come out of the woodworks. It's crazy... it seems every other serious medical emergency in public... I'll end up talking to a nurse on scene who sounds very competent or a bystander will tell me a nurse on scene is tending to the patient and has taken charge of the scene.

 

[Hockey]

At first I was kind of hesitant since I wouldn't want a million 'scanner jockies' showing up, but I really don't think it would bring those kind of people to the scene. It only alerts if you are within a very close distance (under 1000 feet I believe, although some reports are 300 feet).

Developed for a Fire Dept in California but I can see it POSSIBLY hitting more areas.


http://www.emsworld.com/article/article.jsp?id=15954

 

[Aprz]

That's really cool. I wonder how it works though. It's not like people have a chip in them that sends out a signal saying they are in cardiac arrest. Do people around them have to use the iPhone app to notify others, or does 9-1-1 activate it, or how?

 

[rwik123]

Yaaaaaaa

http://www.emtlife.com/showthread.php?t=21764

 

[abckidsmom]

I'd also like to point out that in medical emergencies in public, it's amazing how nurses come out of the woodworks. It's crazy... it seems every other serious medical emergency in public... I'll end up talking to a nurse on scene who sounds very competent or a bystander will tell me a nurse on scene is tending to the patient and has taken charge of the scene.

In an emergency, everybody's a nurse.

I's a nuss, too, ya know.

 

[jjesusfreak01]

My county uses an overly complicated array of codes when they dispatch each call, which indicate what the primary complaint and the severity are. Additionally, Code Blue calls have a different siren on the radio, so they can easily be differentiated from less critical calls, and the computer voice on the radio says "code blue". So, the basic dispatch that can be picked up by scanners would have enough information to get a first responder to the scene if they were close by. If there is already an online scanner for my area, a program could be written to analyze the feed, listen for "code blue", and then send me the address if I am close.

PS: CPR is the most important key to survival in a cardiac arrest. If you can get a trained responder to the scene two minutes faster than the dispatched EMS crew, you can make a difference. Once a trained crew does get on scene, its their job to quickly clear out the unhelpful people from the helpful.

 

[ffemt8978]

Duplicate threads merged under newer thread title.