The European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA), a registered branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) has created a novel smartphone application that can direct responders to cardiac arrest victims more than three minutes before the emergency services arrive. Each minute increases the chances of survival by 10%.

According to EHRA spokesperson Dr Christian Elsner, sudden cardiac arrest can be lethal if left untreated. Typically in Europe, emergency services arrive approximately nine minutes after a cardiac arrest but every minute earlier improves the chances of survival by 10% and reduces the risk of brain injury. While bystander resuscitation can shorten the time between cardiac arrest and urgent resuscitation measures but this occurs in only 30 to 60% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases.

This new app has been designed to increase the rate of bystander resuscitation and reduce the time between cardiac arrest and resuscitation. The app is used by existing emergency services to locate trained rescuers and to direct them to the scene of emergency. The objective is to get the app rescuer on the scene three to four minutes after the cardiac arrest.

The app has already been tested in Lübeck, Germany. Nearly 600 app rescuers were recruited and arrived more than three minutes before the emergency services in 36% of cardiac arrest cases. 70% of these recruits were medically trained while 30% took a basic life support course which they committed to take every two years.

The organisers of this project recommend that emergency dispatch units across Germany should connect to this app to be able to gain access to this well-trained fleet of app rescuers. The app is fairly easy to use and simply needs to be connected to emergency alert systems in Europe. Insurance for app users is included and so is a guarantee of data security from the German Department for Data Security in Schleswig-Holstein.

Dr Elsner concluded: "Ultimately we will roll the app out across Europe. We hope to raise bystander resuscitation rates to 70-90% and for cardiac arrest patients to be resuscitated in three to four minutes on average."

Source: ESC
Image Credit: Pixabay

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cardiac arrest, app, emergency services, first responders The European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA), a registered branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) has created a novel smartphone application that can direct responders to cardiac arrest victims more than three minutes before the emergency serv