A location-based phone application that alerts people trained in CPR when someone nearby is having a heart attack will be spreading from San Ramon, California, to San Jose by mid-February, according to San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District Chief Richard Price.
The PulsePoint app sends a notification to a smartphone if the user is close to a possible heart attack victim, but only if the emergency is happening in a public space. The app has been available for more than a year and was recently added to the Android Market in addition to being available in the iPhone App Store.
The PulsePoint Foundation is working with more than 150 agencies that are interested in bringing the PulsePoint app to their communities, from Fargo, North Dakota, to an agency in Sao Paulo, Brazil, said a spokeswoman with the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District.
Users must first confirm that they are CPR-certified, and the app then alerts them if dispatchers are sending EMTs to a potential heart attack victim in a public location. Price says heart attack victims are the focus of the app because resuscitation needs to be started within 10 minutes of the attack if victims are to have a chance of survival.