Emergency Management Magazine has run a great article on LA County Fire Department linking its dispatch system to an app that will notify CPR trained citizens of the need for their lifesaving skills.  This app, PulsePoint, has apparently been in existence for a while and has, according to the article, 650 emergency response systems linked to it from across the country.

I was not aware of this app, but I think the concept of crowdsourcing lifesaving skills like CPR is great – especially given the narrow window of time that emergency medicine can be effective following cardiac arrest.  This concept leads me to think of what other areas within public safety can be crowdsourced, relying on the good will of citizens to provide aid in times of need.

What possibilities do you see?

– Tim Riecker

UPDATE

After posting this blog I downloaded the PulsePoint app on my phone.  I was amazed at the number of locations PulsePoint serves across the country.  While there were none near me I still activated the alerting feature on the app as I do travel to many of the locations listed.  When searching for the app in the App Store, I also came across PulsePoint AED, which is another crowdsourcing app which allows users to help identify the locations of AEDs in their communities (this database is cross referenced with the CPR app so users can be alerted to the location of an AED).  There didn’t seem to be any indicated in my area, so there likely are not any users around here as of yet.  I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for these locations when I’m out in the community and contributing to PulsePoint’s database.