New software aimed at helping Good Samaritans, first responders

NORRISTOWN >> Montgomery County has invested $86,500 dollars in software that will help first responders and individuals in need of emergency assistance.

Two contracts have been approved by the county, each purchasing software for the Department of Public Safety. The first, a contract with Physio-Control Inc. for $28,000 helps alert people trained in CPR when their skills are needed.

“The reasonwe decided to pursue this is that the survival rate for sudden cardiac arrest, just out on the street should you be so unfortunate, is only about 8 percent,” said Commissioners’ Chairwoman Val Arkoosh. “And this software has been used in other localities and they have been able to improve that survival rate.”

The software allows dispatchers in Montgomery County to send out an alert to anyone with the smartphone app called Pulse Point. Anyone within 1/8 of a mile of a person under cardiac arrest in public will receive the alert and directions to the individual in order to perform CPR. The app will also alert users of the location of the nearest automated external defibrillator (AED).

Arkoosh, who is also a physician, said that the app is building on the Department of Public Safety’s Heart Saver, program, which has taken measures to improve response to cardiac arrest. Those measures include equipping police with AEDs, providing paramedics with advanced cardiac life support and training emergency dispatchers to walk a caller through CPR when it is needed.

“So this will just be another tool in that toolbox to increase survival when someone collapses on the street or in their home,” Arkoosh said.

The second contract, with Rave Wireless Inc. in the amount of $58,500, provides software that helps communicate to first responders any special circumstances in a registered home calling 911. County residents can register a home or cell phone number, and list whether any residents of the home have special needs, such as a disability or difficulty communicating, or let first responders know that there is a pet in the home.

“Our police and the individual calling for help both benefit greatly when everyone is aware of what those challenges are,” Arkoosh said. “So this will allow those individuals to register a cell phone, a home phone, both, it’s up to them, and they fill out some sort of form with information that they choose to provide with any situation in their home that they would want responders to be aware of.”

Both programs are planned to be up and running through Public Safety early in 2017.