Title: FirstAED emergency dispatch, global positioning of community first responders with distinct roles - a solution to reduce the response times and ensuring an AED to early defibrillation in the rural area Langeland

Authors: Finn Lund Henriksen; Per Schorling; Bruno Hansen; Henrik Schakow; Mogens Lytken Larsen

Addresses: Department of Cardiology, The AED Center, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark ' The Langeland AED Association, Langeland, Denmark ' The Langeland AED Association, Langeland, Denmark ' Department of Cardiology, The AED Center, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark ' Department of Cardiology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

Abstract: FirstAED is a supplement to the existing emergency response systems. The aim is to shorten the community first responder response times at emergency calls to below five minutes in a bridge connected island area. FirstAED defines a way to dispatch the nearby three first responders and organise their roles in a team structure to reduce response times, ensure citizens' safety and offer equal possibility of early defibrillation. First aid is provided by community first responders who use their smartphone. FirstAED global positioning system (GPS)-tracks the nine nearby first responders and enables the emergency dispatcher to send an organised team of three first responders with distinct roles to the scene automatically. During the first 24 months the FirstAED system was used 718 times. Three first responders arrived in ~89% of the cases, and they arrived before the ambulance in ~94% of the cases. FirstAED entailed a significant reduction in median first responder response time to four minutes nine seconds and in median time to AED on site to five minutes and 47 seconds.

Keywords: cardiopulmonary resuscitation; CPR; response time; community first responders; CFR; dispatching; public access defibrillation; PAD; global positioning system; GPS; debriefing; automatic external defibrillator; AED; emergency medical services; EMS; emergency medical dispatch centres; EMD; basic life support; BLS; team structure; Denmark; emergency management; rural areas; rural communities; emergency calls; first aid.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNVO.2016.075131

International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, 2016 Vol.16 No.1, pp.86 - 102

Received: 04 May 2015
Accepted: 21 Sep 2015
Published online: 04 Mar 2016 *

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