ANCHORAGE, AK – Today, the Anchorage Fire department (AFD), Chugiak Fire Department (CFD), and the Girdwood Fire Department (GFD) announced the adoption of PulsePoint in the Municipality of Anchorage to further our commitment to creating a healthy and civically engaged community.
A press conference took place today to highlight the advantages of having PulsePoint in Anchorage. AFD was joined by Mayor Bronson, Dr. Mike Levy, and the three community Fire Chiefs. The speakers detailed the benefits of PulsePoint, a free-to-download mobile app, which 1) alerts CPR-trained citizens of cardiac events in their vicinity so they may administer aid, 2) helps build a comprehensive Automated External Defibrillator (AED) registry and 3) informs the community of emergency activity in real time.
“Having this valuable and responsive tool in our community will save lives," said Mayor Dave Bronson. “I want to commend Chief Schrage and his entire team at AFD for their diligence and foresight on bringing PulsePoint to Anchorage. From Girdwood to Chugiak, our community will be better served and safer for it."
“With PulsePoint we hope to increase bystander involvement in time-sensitive medical calls by increasing the use of CPR and AEDs, while also keeping the community informed, in real time, of all emergency activities," said AFD Chief Doug Schrage. “It gives our residents and visitors the ability to know when a cardiac arrest is occurring close by, locate AEDs in the area, and perform potentially lifesaving CPR while our personnel respond to the scene. It also shows them general information for all 9-1-1 calls to keep them better informed of what's going on in our community."
Yearly, the Anchorage Fire Department responds to nearly 45,000 incidents, including more than 280 cardiac arrest events.
“In addition to nearby 'CPR-needed' notifications, PulsePoint subscribers can follow their local fire department and choose to be notified of significant events that may impact their family. These informational notifications provide an early and automatic heads-up to local threats such as wildland fires, flooding and utility emergencies," said Richard Price, President of the nonprofit PulsePoint Foundation. “Improving situational awareness with PulsePoint can help build safer, stronger, and more resilient communities."
PulsePoint Respond empowers everyday citizens to provide life‐saving assistance to victims of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). PulsePoint Respond app subscribers who have indicated they are trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and willing to assist in case of an emergency can be notified if someone nearby is having a SCA and may require CPR. If the cardiac emergency is in a public place, the location-aware application will alert users in the vicinity of the need for CPR simultaneous with the dispatch of advanced medical care. The application also directs these potential rescuers to the exact location of the closest AED.
The companion app, PulsePoint AED, lets you report and update AED locations so that emergency responders, including nearby citizens, can find an AED close to them when a cardiac emergency occurs. You can help build the community registry by using PulsePoint AED to describe the location of an AED and add a picture. This information is then staged for local authorities to verify. After that, the AED location data can be made available to dispatchers and anyone using the PulsePoint Respond app.
The latest AHA guidelines, published in Circulation, state that such community programs could increase bystander CPR to the roughly 350,000 cardiac arrests that happen outside the hospital each year.
About the PulsePoint Foundation
PulsePoint is a 501(c)(3) public non-profit foundation based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Using location-aware mobile devices, PulsePoint is building applications that work with local public safety agencies to improve communications with citizens and professional emergency responders, increase civic engagement and empower the community to help reduce the millions of annual deaths from sudden cardiac arrest. Learn more at pulsepoint.org or join the conversation at Facebook and Twitter. The free app is available for download on the App Store and Google Play.
About Sudden Cardiac Arrest
Although a heart attack can lead to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), the two are not the same. SCA is when the heart malfunctions and suddenly stops beating unexpectedly, whereas a heart attack is when blood flow to the heart is blocked, but the heart continues to beat. Each year, more than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur, making it the leading cause of death in the United States. Survival rates nationally for SCA are less than eight percent, but delivery of CPR can sustain life until paramedics arrive by maintaining vital blood flow to the heart and brain. However, only about a third of SCA victims receive bystander CPR. Without CPR, brain damage or death can occur in minutes. The average EMS response time is nine minutes, even in urban settings; after 10 minutes there is little chance of successful resuscitation. The American Heart Association estimates that effective bystander CPR, provided immediately after SCA, can double, or triple a person's chance of survival.
Media Contact: Alex Boyd, Anchorage Fire Department Assistant Chief at (907) 764- 2731 or by email at alexander.boyd@anchorageak.gov
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