Development of a first-responder dispatch system using a smartphone

Abstract

We constructed a prototype community first responder (CFR) dispatch system. The system sends incident information, including a map, to the chosen CFR's mobile phone. We tested it in a simulation of 30 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest incidents which had occurred in the town of Motegi during the previous year. Thirty off-duty firefighters acted as CFRs and were sent to the same locations. The mean response time (from the CFR receiving dispatch information to arrival at the scene) was 3 min 37s faster than the actual response time in the corresponding historical control, i.e. the response time was reduced by 36% (P < 0.01). The median travel distance of the CFRs was 3.4 km and there was a positive correlation between response time and travel distance. The study showed that interactive communication between dispatcher and CFR was important for effective operation and that CFRs could reach an OHCA patient before the Emergency Medical Service arrives.

Use of Mobile Devices, Social Media, and Crowdsourcing as Digital Strategies to Improve Emergency Cardiovascular Care

“…Others are developing similar systems with enhanced features in other countries such as Japan and Sweden. [161][162][163] Future initiatives could also allow responders (or even patients) to alert others in their geographic proximity of a need for help. 164,165 With the advent of sensors and wearable devices that track biometric data, early warning symptoms could also trigger nearby networks for early response.…”

Mobile-Phone Dispatch of Laypersons for CPR in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

“…5 With the use of a mobile-phone positioning system, persons who have mobile phones can be located 6 and sent to assist patients with suspected out-ofhospital cardiac arrest; this approach has been reported in prior pilot and simulation studies. 7,8 We hypothesized that the use of a mobilephone positioning system to dispatch lay responders who are trained in CPR to assist patients with suspected out-of-hospital cardiac arrest would increase the proportion of cases in which CPR was performed by trained bystanders.…”

An Operations Research Approach for Daily Emergency Management

“…In recent years, the involvement of volunteers in daily emergencies has been studied and evaluated more than before. Yonekawa et al (2014), Ringh et al (2015), Capucci et al (2016), and Claesson et al (2017) are some examples of these studies, which largely focus on the effect of the dispatch of volunteers to OHCA cases. Majority of the works that examine the use of volunteers in daily emergencies mainly focus on the evaluation of the effects of their involvement based on different measures, e.g.…”