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A smartphone app designed to alert nearby CPR-trained volunteers resulted in similar response times for bystander CPR or automated external defibrillator (AED) use compared with the standard 911 response for people experiencing cardiac arrest, according to new, preliminary, independent late-breaking science presented Saturday at the American Heart Association's Resuscitation Science Symposium 2026 in Chicago.
A collaborative of researchers in British Columbia and Columbus, Ohio, randomly assigned cardiac arrest calls to receive either the standard 911 emergency response or the standard response plus PulsePoint Respond alerts to nearby volunteers. Bystanders provided CPR or used an AED in 69% of cardiac arrests when PulsePoint alerts were activated, compared with 72% with the standard 911 response alone, a difference that was not statistically significant.
PulsePoint Respond is a smartphone application. In communities that have implemented the system, it connects with the local 911 dispatch center to alert nearby people who have indicated that they are willing and able to perform CPR in an emergency. EMS agencies subscribe to the service for a fee; however, the app is free to download for community first-responder volunteers.
"In the event of a cardiac arrest, calling 911 is essential, yet even a rapid professional response can take several minutes—time the person in cardiac arrest cannot afford to lose. , senior lead author and a co-principal investigator of the study and a professor in emergency medicine and public health sciences at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
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