Lancaster County Commissioners, members of the Lancaster County EMS Council, and Tim Zellers of LG Health’s Heart & Vascular Institute (second from left) announce the countywide launch of the PulsePoint Respond Mobile App.
On Feb. 22, the County of Lancaster, in partnership with Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, announced the launch of the PulsePoint Respond mobile app, a powerful tool in efforts to increase cardiac survival rates in the community.
Lancaster County is the 13th county statewide to adopt PulsePoint Respond, joining an estimated 4,000 communities nationwide. Funded entirely at the local level by LG Health’s Heart & Vascular Institute Mission Committee, PulsePoint Respond is designed to support public safety agencies in improving survival rates by empowering bystanders, citizens, and off-duty medical professionals to provide lifesaving assistance to victims of sudden cardiac arrest.
The significance of providing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and an automated external defibrillator (AED) minutes following a sudden cardiac arrest recently made headlines when NFL player Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field during a game – and survived. Both are considered the first links in the “Chain of Survival” cardiac arrest paradigm, which Penn Medicine Professor of Emergency Medicine Benjamin Abella, MD, MPhil, recently reinforced and described in an episode of the Penn Primary Care podcast, ”Update on Cardiac Arrest Management.” PulsePoint Respond empowers citizens with the information needed to provide these first steps for a stronger link in response to such events.
How It Works
PulsePoint Respond provides two versions based on the user’s training and experience. One version is for the general public, for whom the app will provide detailed instructions on how to use an AED and properly perform CPR. The second version of the app is for off-duty first responders and medical personnel, who will be alerted if there is a nearby victim of cardiac arrest in need of care.
PulsePoint Respond users who have indicated they are trained in CPR will be notified if someone within a half-mile radius of their location is having a cardiac emergency and may require CPR. If the cardiac emergency is in a public place, the location-aware app will alert trained citizens in the vicinity of the need for bystander CPR simultaneously with the dispatch of EMS to the medical emergency. PulsePoint will also direct citizen rescuers to the exact location of the closest publicly accessible AED.
PulsePoint Respond’s network is hardwired to the county’s 911 call center. Citizens can easily find the PulsePoint Respond app to download for free in the Apple App store or Google’s Play store.
Extending LG Health’s Mission
“LG Health has always understood that our responsibility to our community extends well beyond delivering exceptional health care. We are also deeply committed to fulfilling our mission to advance the health and well-being of the communities we serve,” stated Tim Zellers, executive director of the LG Health Heart & Vascular Institute. “Bringing the PulsePoint Respond technology to Lancaster County is another example of how we are helping to build a safer, stronger, and healthier community. We have worked collaboratively with the local EMS council on this project for many years, furthering our commitment to help make Lancaster the healthiest community possible.”