
February 9, 2023
PulsePoint: Accessing the Closest Help to Treat Cardiac Arrests
By James Careless, All Things FirstNet
Every day in the United States, about 1,000 people suffer cardiac arrests. Every minute that passes between a cardiac arrest and the administration of aid decreases their chance of survival by 10%. Clearly, the sooner that medical assistance arrives, the better.
Speeding the arrival of help is the goal of the PulsePoint Foundation (PulsePoint), a 501(c)(3) public nonprofit organization. Mindful that even the fastest-dispatched EMS and fire agencies can take precious minutes to arrive, PulsePoint recruits CPR-trained volunteers to step in when they are closer to the scene. This is possible due to these volunteers running the free PulsePoint Respond app on their smartphones (available in Android and Apple iOS), and living in jurisdictions whose local 911 centers have registered to forward cardiac-related calls to PulsePoint as the calls come in.
Filed Under: News, Highlights | Tagged With: All Things FirstNet, FirstNet, Western Fire Chiefs Association, WFCA, PulsePoint Respond, David Pendergrass, Michael Garrison, James Careless, Steve Lopez, Tom Jenkins, International Association of Fire Chiefs, IAFC, cardiac arrest, CPR, AED, AED Registry

January 5, 2023
Op-Ed: What Communities Can Learn About Cardiac Response from Damar Hamlin Incident
By Dr. Michael Sayre, MD, Medical Director for the Seattle Fire Department and PulsePoint and Professor of Emergency Medicine at University of Washington
The unsettling collapse of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin during a Monday Night Football game brought sudden cardiac arrest to the attention of millions of Americans. Surviving sudden cardiac arrest relies on immediate medical attention, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation and AED (automated external defibrillator) use. Mr. Hamlin was fortunate in that he was quickly surrounded by medical professionals armed with an emergency action plan, and experienced paramedics joined them within minutes. Now, even with the best, most rapid care, Americans are learning that recovery from cardiac arrest takes time.
Filed Under: Event, Highlights, News | Tagged With: Damar Hamlin, AED, CPR, Sudden Cardiac Arrest, Op-Ed, Michael Sayre, University of Washington, PulsePoint Respond, PulsePoint AED, AED Registry, Bystander Engagement, 911 dispatchers
November 29, 2022
Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue Wins 2022 PulsePoint AED Contest
City of Palm Beach Gardens received a $5,000 grant for the purchase of public defibrillators.
The PulsePoint Foundation, a public non-profit 501(c)(3), announced today that Palm Beach Gardens Fire & Rescue (FL) has won the 2022 PulsePoint AED Contest, winning a $5,000 grant to purchase AEDs (automated external defibrillators) for their community.
The contest took place during the month of October, Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month, and was eligible to any community using PulsePoint AED to locate and register AEDs. Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue collectively registered 179 AEDs at locations throughout the city including schools, government buildings, local businesses and gyms. Once the newly registered AEDs are vetted by public safety personnel their location will be made available to emergency responders during cardiac emergencies.
Filed Under: Press Release, Event, Highlights, News | Tagged With: Palm Beach Gardens, AED Contest, Grant, Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month, Palm Beach Gardens Fire & Rescue, Ashley Terrana, AED Registry, AED Registration

August 22, 2022
San Francisco Launches Use of PulsePoint Mobile App to Help Save Lives
The PulsePoint Respond mobile phone application will increase community awareness of medical emergencies and alert and direct CPR-trained individuals nearby to cardiac arrest victim.
The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management and City officials today announced the launch of PulsePoint, a mobile phone application (PulsePoint app) designed to support public safety agencies increasing cardiac arrest survival rates through improved bystander performance and active resident support.
“Time is of the upmost importance when it comes to helping someone experiencing a cardiac arrest. The PulsePoint app provides this critical element: closing the time gap between when CPR is started,” said San Francisco Fire Department Chief Jeanine Nicholson. “We want anyone willing and able to conduct CPR on someone experiencing cardiac arrest to download the PulsePoint app. This way bystanders and emergency medical first responders can work together to save lives.”
Filed Under: Press Release, Highlights, News | Tagged With: San Francisco Department of Emergency Management, San Francisco, Mary Ellen Carroll, Jeanine Nicholson

July 11, 2022
The Western Fire Chiefs Association Introduces It’s Wildland Fire Map to Communities and News Sources, Protecting Lives and Land
As the country prepares for a summer of excessive heat and drought, the Western Fire Chiefs Association (WFCA) introduces its Fire Map to provide near real-time information about active wildfires.
“The current climate situation is incredibly scary,” said Chief Mark Niemeyer, Board President of the WFCA and Fire Chief of the Boise Fire Department. “The WFCA is providing public access to definitive information around the paths of wildfires so that communities can quickly take action,” said Niemeyer.
The WFCA Fire Map pulls data from the US Forest Service via the National Interagency Fire Center IRWIN feed, and 911 Dispatch data via PulsePoint to track the location of the wildfire as they start and while they’re burning. The WFCA Fire Map is the first map of its kind to pull such data from 911 Dispatch in relevant areas.
Filed Under: Press Release, Highlights, News | Tagged With: Western Fire Chiefs Association, WFCA, Mark Niemeyer, National Interagency Fire Center, NFIC, IRWIN, Wildfire, Fire Map, Wildland Fire Map, Wildland, 911 Interface, Boise Fire Department

June 3, 2022
King County Fire Chiefs Association / Medic One Foundation Adopt Life-saving App
Goal to Turn Thousands into PulsePoint Civilian Responders
King County Fire Chiefs Association and Medic One Foundation today announced the county-wide launch of PulsePoint, a free life-saving mobile app that notifies users when someone nearby is in cardiac arrest and needs immediate help. The announcement highlights National CPR & AED Awareness Week, June 1-7, 2022.
"When a person goes into sudden cardiac arrest, every minute without CPR reduces their chance of survival, so immediate help from a bystander who can do CPR is critical," said Dr. Tom Rea, Emergency Medical Services Program Director for King County.
Filed Under: Press Release, Highlights, News | Tagged With: Medic One Foundation, King County Fire Chiefs Association, Tom Rea, NORCOM 911, Valley Communications, King County, King County EMS, Snohomish County

November 30, 2021
Fairfield County, Ohio Wins Inaugural PulsePoint AED Contest
County will receive $5,000 grant for the purchase of public defibrillators.
The PulsePoint Foundation, a public non-profit 501(c)(3), announced today that Fairfield County, Ohio has won the inaugural PulsePoint AED Contest, winning a $5,000 grant to purchase AEDs for public safety staff and/or the community. The contest took place during the month of October, Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month, and was eligible to any community using PulsePoint AED to locate and register AEDs. Fairfield County, with the help of Fairfield Medical Center’s Community Heart Watch Committee, collectively registered 238 AEDs at locations throughout the county including schools, government buildings, places of worship and sports centers. Once the newly registered AEDs are vetted by public safety personnel their location will be made available to emergency responders during cardiac emergencies.
Filed Under: Press Release, Event, Highlights, News | Tagged With: 911 dispatchers, AED, AED Registry, aed.new, Public AED Registry, PulsePoint AED Registry, Sudden Cardiac Arrest, AED Contest, Fairfield Medical Center, Community Heart Watch, Fairfield County, Michelle George, AED Program Management, National AED registry, 911 AED Registry, Register AED, AED Grant

March 3, 2021
Saving lives in Fairbanks, a PulsePoint at a time
Every day, people die when their heart stops pumping because of heart disease and other causes.
In the Fairbanks area alone, more than 50 people die annually from cardiac arrest. Many times, there are people nearby that are trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR. CPR can sustain a life in the crucial first few minutes following a cardiac arrest. The problem is that the people trained in CPR often aren’t aware that somebody nearby needs their help.
We are fortunate that in Fairbanks we have ambulances staffed with highly trained, well-equipped emergency medical technicians and paramedics, a first-class 911 system to dispatch them, and a superb emergency department at our community hospital. Even in the very best system, though, it takes several minutes for someone to dial 911 and for emergency medical personnel to arrive at the scene of the emergency.
Filed Under: News, | Tagged With: Fairbanks, Alaska, Doug Schrage, University of Alaska Fire Department, Verified Responder

January 7, 2021
Emergency Telecommunicators Need Access to a Community AED Registry
Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) telecommunicators are a critical link in the cardiac arrest chain of survival. Placing the proper tools in their hands can improve outcomes.
The PulsePoint Foundation provides PSAP technology to make "Is there an AED nearby?" an unnecessary question during cardiac arrest call processing while also advocating for broad adoption of this lifesaving capability. Our goal is for the telecommunicator to instead inform the caller of the location of nearby AEDs. Consider how much more effective it would be to say, “there is an AED at that store,” and direct the caller to “send someone to retrieve the AED from the customer service counter,” as CPR instructions begin? We back our advocacy and commitment with comprehensive and accessible resources. By providing exceptional, industry-supported AED registry solutions at no cost—and we genuinely mean free in all aspects—we strive to remove deployment impediments.
Filed Under: News, Highlights | Tagged With: AED Registry, AED, aed.new, 911 AED, AED Registry for dispatchers, Add an AED, Register an AED, FirstNet AED, AED Registry app, Nearby AED, Nearest AED, Dispatch recommend AED, Dispatcher recommended AED, Find AED, Locate AED, Source AED, Hosted AED Registry, Browser-based AED Registry, Cloud AED Registry, AED Management, AED Registry Management, Community AED Registry, Telecommunicator AED, Emergency Telecommunicators, ECC AED, Free AED Registry, No cost AED Registry, ProQA, ProQA AED Registry, Paramount AED Registry, Priority Dispatch AED, Priority Dispatch Registry, EMD AED, EMD AED Registry, Calltaker AED Registry, Call taker AED, AED Database, Cardiac Arrest AED, Sudden Cardiac Arrest AED, Where are AEDs located, Automated External Defibrillator Registry, Defibrillator Registry, Track AEDs, PAD Registry, Public Access Defibrillator, PAD AED Registry, Enhanced 9-1-1 AED, NG AED, NG Registry for AED, Find an AED, HeartSafe AED Registry, HeartSafe AED, National AED registry, AED Locator, AED Link, AED Registry Database, Priority Dispatch ProQA Paramount, Register a new AED, PSAP AED Registry, AED Registration, Tracking AEDs, Link AEDs, Online AED Registration, AED Program Management, AED Program Registry, AED Management Software, AED Log, AED Program

October 22, 2020
Updated American Heart Association Guidelines Recommend Mobile Technology to Alert Bystanders
The AHA’s 2020 CPR Guidelines Recommend Emergency Dispatch Systems Alert Willing Bystanders Through Mobile Phone Technology, Like PulsePoint, to Assist in CPR and AED Retrieval
The 2020 American Heart Association (AHA) Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC) were just released to include updated CPR guidelines that direct emergency dispatch systems to use mobile technology to activate early bystander response in sudden cardiac emergencies. The PulsePoint Respond app, the North American standard in alerting willing bystanders to CPR-needed events, is currently in more than 4000 communities and has built a network of more than 2.5 million subscribers.
Filed Under: Press Release, Highlights, News | Tagged With: American Heart Association, AHA, Guidelines, cardiac arrest, AED, AED Registry, Michael Kurz, Alabama Resuscitation Center, Michael Sayre, Steven C. Brooks, Canadian Institutes for Health, CIHR, Queen's University, CPR