PulsePoint App Clark County IN Heart Attack CPR Training Firefighters Alerts

CLARK COUNTY — A recently launched app is intended to save lives in Clark County. As they receive alerts on their phones, community members will have the opportunity to respond to a sudden cardiac arrest before the EMS arrives.

The Clark County Health Department and local fire and EMS agencies presented a press conference Wednesday to officially announce the launch of PulsePoint, a free app that will alert CPR-trained individuals of a nearby cardiac arrest and the location of the nearest Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs). PulsePoint went live in Clark County in early November.

PulsePoint users are immediately notified by Clark County's 911 system when their help is needed, and the app directs them toward the scene. Dr. Eric Yazel, Clark County Health Department health officer and local emergency physician, led the effort to introduce PulsePoint to Clark County.

"With PulsePoint, my thought is, why wait until help arrives or hope that a Good Samaritan just happens to come across the scene?" he said. "Why not have one of our CPR providers in the county be able to be directed to the site of the cardiac arrest?"

PulsePoint has been launched in other areas of the country, and it has helped people save lives. Early CPR and defibrillation improve chances of survival, and PulsePoint checks both boxes, Yazel said.

In parts of Clark County, EMS response times can be up to 20 to 30 minutes, according to Yazel. This makes EMS coverage for these areas "not just a challenge, but an impossibility," he said, particularly since chances of survival decrease by 7 to 10 percent with each delay in CPR. He hopes PulsePoint will change that by decreasing response times.

Yazel's goal is to have 1,000 people registered with PulsePoint by the next year. As of Wednesday morning, more than 300 people had signed up for the app, and 37 AEDs have been registered throughout the county, he said.

"It would be great if a citizen never needed PulsePoint, but if they do, I think it's going to be really rewarding the first time we respond to someone and make a difference," he said.

The Clark County Health Department hopes to expand the number of PulsePoint users by presenting CPR training classes at local schools, malls and businesses. He said he plans to find areas that are consistently receiving few notifications on the app and target those areas for training.

PulsePoint is funded through private donors and grants, and the Clark County Health Department encourages donations to keep the program running.

Clarksville Fire Department Chief Brandon Skaggs said he wishes this technology had been available 30 years ago. At the press conference, he shared a story about his grandfather's death from a cardiac arrest.

At the funeral, Skaggs' parents talked to a firefighter who lived in his grandfather's neighborhood. He was in his basement at the time of the cardiac arrest, but he wasn't aware of what was going on.

"This firefighter who was a hundred feet away, who was trained, who had the knowledge of full arrest, was never alerted," he said. "We didn't have any advanced dispatching system or ways to alert responders at that time. So moving forward, I'm very passionate about this app that can alert lay rescuers and also alert professionals in our area who might not have the dispatching system."

Jeffersonville councilman Matt Owen, who is also a captain at New Chapel EMS, called PulsePoint "a win all the way around." Trained individuals, whether they are off-duty first responders or regular bystanders, will be able to help people in the community, he said.

"If somebody has an event while they’re grocery shopping, and anybody else in the grocery store can start CPR while responders are getting to the scene — that just increases the chances of survival," he said. "As a first responder, it’s great to know that someone can start resuscitation as soon as possible."

Owen said he expects the app to have a positive effect in areas such as Henryville and Marysville, where response times are slower. He works with first responders who live in those areas, so the app could give them another chance to help.

State Rep. Rita Fleming, who is also an obstetrician, believes the app will be helpful in cases of opioid overdoses if combined with more widely available naloxone. The PulsePoint app means that people in Clark County can save lives no matter where they are, she said.

"If you’re in the grocery store, if you are at home with a family member, if you are in a department store — anywhere — there is the potential that you could save someone’s life," she said. "And we know that time lost is lives lost, so if someone is in the immediate vicinity and can respond, then it’s very likely they can save somebody’s life."

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