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Fire Department, partners seek to boost survival rates with app

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The Springfield Fire Department partnered with other city departments, health care systems and colleges to bring a life-saving smartphone app to the city.

Dubbed PulsePoint, the existing app — created by the PulsePoint Foundation — alerts CPR-trained residents of nearby cardiac events and shows the locations of automated external defibrillators in the area, according to a news release.

“We believe PulsePoint will be a powerful tool in our efforts to increase survival rates in our community,” Fire Chief David Pennington said in the release. “In addition to the lifesaving CPR notifications, the application provides a complete virtual window into the emergency communication center.”

PulsePoint was rolled out across the 17 counties served by Mercy and CoxHealth emergency medical services. Other partners are the city of Springfield, Missouri State, Evangel and Drury universities, Ozarks Technical Community College, City Utilities and the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.

The app works by informing users of cardiac events at the same time first responders are dispatched, according to the release.

“When a patient is in cardiac distress, the quicker they receive help, the greater chance they have for a complete recovery,” said Dr. Stephen Kuehn, interventional cardiologist with CoxHealth, in the release. “This technology is a wonderful tool to have in place, and I’m excited for what it means for patients throughout southwest Missouri.”

The app has more than 100,000 installs through the Google Play store. Apple’s App Store does not show the number of installs, though it has some 1,400 ratings.

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