Newport News Fire Department utilizes app to alert citizen responders of cardiac arrests

Jan. 24--Jordan Bond is proof that good ideas can come from unexpected places. For Bond, the place was Norway and the idea was a life-saving mobile phone application.

"I noticed a medical study in Norway that studied whether people survived better if citizens did CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) versus if they didn't, using an app," said Bond, a senior firefighter/medic with the Newport News Fire Department the past eight years. "I think somehow that developed into PulsePoint a few years later.

"As soon as I saw PulsePoint, I was like, that needs to come here."

Bond pitched the app to a committee of department firefighters, then to Fire Chief R.B. Alley III and R.E. Lee, the assistant fire chief of medical services. All approved and the NNFD announced the launch of PulsePoint in a news conference Tuesday at Fire Station No. 3.

PulsePoint is an interactive mobile app that alerts citizens within a 400-meter radius when someone suffers a Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) in a public place.

The alert is sent out by the local 911 system and includes a map of the victim's location and of the nearest Automated External Defibrillator (AED) in case electrical shock is needed to revive the heart.

PulsePoint can be downloaded for free. App users who indicate they are trained in CPR and are willing to assist in an SCA emergency are notified.

"It enables us to get to people, trained in CPR, sooner (so they can get) to those people who are in cardiac arrest while we're responding," Lee said. "The initial cost is $18,000, a good investment on our part.

"There's an annual cost, which is why Riverside (Health System) is helping us. We felt like it was a good investment to help our community."

Users also can download an app at no charge pinpointing the locations of AEDs, which the NNFD then will verify to add to the maps on the PulsePoint alerts.

Lee said that the fire department had a "soft launch" of the app in November. About 200 people registered, he said, and one responded to an SCA victim. With the public launch on Tuesday, he said he expects hundreds more to register soon.

Fire department personnel offered CPR instruction to those on hand at Tuesday's news conference.

"They gave excellent training and it just warms my heart to see their commitment and what they do for the community," said Newport News human resources director Yvonne Manning. "Cindy Rolfe (Newport News' City Manager) just agreed that we're going to have (the fire department) provide this training to all of the department heads."

According to PulsePoint literature, early CPR and rapid defibrillation before an emergency team arrives can boost survival by 50 percent. That was among the reasons Newport News Mayor McKinley Price said he was happy to tout the city's public launch of PulsePoint.

"We are excited to now have PulsePoint in our community," he said. "This program will benefit both residents and visitors of Newport News, and with American Heart Month beginning next week, now is the perfect time to bring awareness to PulsePoint and for citizens to get involved."

Other local fire departments are poised to use the PulsePoint app. York County, James City County, Williamsburg and Poquoson are working to acquire it as part of a regional initiative.

"We hope to make an announcement and launch it in 2018," said Steve Kopczynski, York County Chief of Fire and Life Safety. "We are absolutely moving forward.

"We see huge value in it. The fire departments are behind it and we have partnerships with (Riverside), so I think you're going to see it happen."

O'Brien can be reached by phone at 757-247-4963 and on Twitter @MartyOBrienDP

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