Alerting Neighbors App: Potential for Life-Saving Notifications - Neighborhood First Responders - The Life-Saving Potential of the App-alert System
Let's face it, every second counts when someone goes into cardiac arrest. That's why volunteer firefighters in Essen, Germany are ready to spring into action, thanks to first aid knowledge, a smartphone, and a bit of luck. They're part of a growing network known as Mobile Rescuers, an app that alerts them when they're near an emergency. This concept, established in 2013, is proving to be a lifesaver but could benefit from a wider reach.
In Germany alone, over 120,000 people experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year. Only one in ten makes it. Yet, with first aider apps like Mobile Rescuers, which are already popular in Scandinavia and the Netherlands, experts believe they can make a lifesaving difference.
The concept is simple: Mobile Rescuers connects around 22,500 participants across nearly 40 cities and districts in six federal states. When the Emergency Service notifies them about an emergency, they're on the scene, often before the Emergency Service, averaging three and a half minutes.
Time is brain, and brains start to die after just three minutes. By filling the gap, these volunteers are saving lives. But to be effective everywhere, the network needs to be denser.
Qualified laypeople are a necessity. A first aid course for a driver's license isn't enough. The control center has to be sure that the person they send out can do it. The training focuses on technical procedures instead of reanimation techniques. Now, over 1,000 helpers in Essen have been alerted over 1,900 times since their introduction in 2019.
Ralf Stroop, an emergency physician from East Westphalia, came up with the lifesaving idea for the app when he saw the flashing lights of an ambulance in his neighborhood. He realized he could have helped earlier if he had known about the emergency in time.
With multiple imitators like Region of Life Savers and Corhelper, the rescue landscape is patchy. Each system has its own standards, and integration is missing. However, providers are working together to establish common standards and interoperable systems. Technology alone isn't enough; regular alerts keep volunteers engaged. Networking via social media, joint ventures, and shared success stories are all ideas being considered.
The medical community supports first aider apps. The emergency medicine community wishes for comprehensive and legal implementation. Ideally, every citizen would know what to do—and do it. Yet, the rate of bystander CPR in Germany is still behind that of other countries like Sweden and the Netherlands. The approach of guiding callers through CPR by staff at the emergency call center is inconsistent. They're demanding the integration of the entire 'blue light' family into such first aider systems, ensuring that help arrives on time, every time.
- First aider
- First aid
- Germany
- Death
- Firefighters
- Apps
- Life savers
- Volunteer responders
Insights
First aider apps—mobile applications that alert trained volunteers and guide them to the scene of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA)—have demonstrated significant effectiveness in improving survival rates and bystander intervention. These systems are associated with higher rates of bystander intervention, which is directly linked to improved survival. Rapid response and training and accessibility are also key benefits. In Germany, these systems are widely implemented under a patchwork of regional and local legal frameworks, with ongoing development and formalization of their legal anchoring.
- To address the low survival rate of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Germany, where over 120,000 occur annually, with first aid apps like Mobile Rescuers gaining acceptance, experts propose that regular vocational training in reanimation techniques be implemented for volunteers, ensuring a higher proficiency level.
- As the network of first aider apps such as Mobile Rescuers expands, incorporating science, health-and-wellness, fitness-and-exercise, and technology, it's important to create a comprehensive community policy that fosters efficient communication, standardization, and integration among providers and systems like Region of Life Savers and Corhelper, aiming for a denser, nationwide network of lifesavers.
