The following was published by the Iowa City Press Citizen on February 14, 2022 at https://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/2022/02/14/johnson-county-iowa-adopts-911-cpr-app-pulsepoint-respond-aed/6791665001/
From now on when someone in Johnson County calls 911 about a heart attack, a firefighter or EMT may not be the first to arrive.
In what officials described Monday as a kind of Valentine’s Day gift, the county’s ambulance agency became the second government body in Iowa to adopt an app that can summon community members trained in CPR, said Johnson County Ambulance Service Director Fiona Johnson.
Tied directly into the county 911 dispatch system, PulsePoint Respond sends an alert to nearby registered users when an ambulance is sent to a medical emergency in a public location. If the user accepts the call, they get directions and the location of the nearest automatic external defibrillator.
A separate app, PulsePoint AED Registry, has a map of publicly available AEDs — devices that monitor a potential heart attack victim’s vital signs and apply electric shocks if needed to restart the heart.
North Liberty Fire Chief Brian Platz praised the effort, particularly since Johnson County only has one full-time, professional fire department. He said saving even one minute can be the difference between life and death.
“A minute is so powerful,” he said. “We never get that time back. So that’s what this is about.”
Johnson County Ambulance Service functions countywide, but operates in partnership with local fire departments that also employ paramedics and emergency medical technicians.
Platz’s department, like many, has a mix of full-time professional members and volunteers.
How PulsePoint Respond works
On downloading the app — which also allows residents to monitor or be notified about fire and medical emergencies in their home community — users are asked if they have certification in giving CPR.
That allows them to sign up for push notifications. Because of privacy, notifications do not have personal information and are given only when the victim is in a public location, Johnson said.
A later phase of the rollout, Johnson said, will also send notifications to off-duty emergency personnel for emergencies in homes and other private locations not part of the public app.
In addition to working on the app rollout, the Rotary Kerber HeartSafe Community Campaign helps churches and other nonprofits with CPR training and subsidizing the purchase and installation of AED devices.
Dr. Dianne Atkins, longtime colleague of Kerber, said the group aims to someday have people trained in CPR reach more than the 23% of cardiac emergencies at which they are now present.
“I would like us to be at 50%, because CPR saves lives,” said Atkins, a retired professor of pediatric medicine who conducted research on cardiac issues.
The other Iowa agency that uses the PulsePoint apps is Westcom Emergency Communications, which provides 911 dispatch to many of Des Moines’ western suburbs.
