Md. County Employs PulsePoint App to Alert Residents of Nearby Cardiac Emergencies

May 22—If you are one of the thousands of Anne Arundel residents with CPR training a new phone app can alert you to a nearby heart attack or another cardiac emergency in a public place.

The county activated PulsePoint Monday, an app that will notify CPR certified residents who sign up to participate and provide the location of public automated external defibrillators—a portable device that checks the heart rhythm and can send an electric shock to the heart to try to restore a normal rhythm—they can grab on their way.

"The PulsePoint program increases the chance that a CPR trained bystander who may be closer than a first responder can take action to save a life," Fire Chief Allan Graves said at a news conference launching the system at Anne Arundel Medical Center.

Emergency and medical officials say the technology will help strengthen the chain of survival for cardiac arrest victims by getting crucial CPR or defibrillator response for patients until emergency responders arrive. 

Dr. Jerome Segal, director of the AAMC Heart Institute, said people suffering a heart attack have about 90 minutes before permanent, sometimes fatal damage to the heart occurs.

But people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest have even less time, about eight to 10 minutes, before permanent damage to the heart or brain, or death may occur.

"That is why our goal is to get patients to a cardiovascular team as quickly as possible," he said. "Nationally we have about half the population with some form of CPR training but only about a third of the time so we have a bystander start CPR within the allotted time. Bystander CPR really saves lives."

Here's how PulsePoint works. When a call comes into 911 for a possible heart emergency the PulsePoint system is automatically activated when the emergency call is dispatched to county emergency responders.

"It uses geocaching to alert anyone with the app who is within two minutes walking distance from the patient," said Capt. Russ Davies, fire department spokesman.

That makes it especially useful in crowded areas like malls, or Annapolis this week with U.S. Naval Academy graduation drawing thousands to the city.

The app will sound a specific alarm on a phone with the location of the patient. Then it will display a map of that location and any nearby readily accessible public AED.

Next, the app provides instructions and a pacing beep for CPR chest compressions to be continued until emergency personnel arrives.

The crucial bystander CPR factor was underscored by Carl Smit, who had a heart attack while sailing in a regatta on the Severn River.

"I told the skipper I was going to sit down and close my eyes for a minute. She turned around and I was not breathing and unresponsive," he said.

"A good friend started CPR. They got me to a motorboat and to shore. I don't remember the day before the day of the event or two days afterward," said Smit, a former Navy SEAL.

"I was defibrillated six times in the ambulance and twice in the emergency room."

The culprit was a 100 percent blockage of the left descending artery in his heart. He was rushed into surgery where a stent was inserted in the artery.

Smit has had a full recovery, having participated in a couple of regattas since the January incident.

The PulsePoint program was spearheaded by Leadership Anne Arundel's class of 2015, which included former county fire chief Michael Cox.

Leadership Anne Arundel, partnering with Anne Arundel Medical Center, and the fire department put all the parts in place to launch PulsePoint about three years ago.

But there was a hitch.

The county 911 computer-aided dispatch system did not have the capability of running incorporating the app.

"They had secured the funding source and everything was ready but the CAD system was not ready to support it," Davis said.

In February a $2.2 million system upgrade was completed for the general needs of police and fire operations, but also making PulsePoint workable.

The startup cost for the program was $10,000. Through funding secured by Leadership Anne Arundel and Anne Arundel Medical Center's participation, the system will be cost-free for the next three years.

After that, an annual $13,000 licensing fee should be the only cost associated with the program now that it is incorporated in the county dispatch system.