AS someone who’s had a heart incident in the past I can assure you that an initiative like this is a HUGE effort that could have potentially live saving implications… So, how do you start the process of building a nationwide registry of Automated External Defibrillators? Well, natural you turn to the power of the crowd, social media, location technology, and smartphones! This is exactly what a group of Penn medical researchers have done with the launch of a crowd-sourced medical device registry competition. Designed to save lives, there’s estimated to be more than a million defibrillators spread out at locations across the US.. stats show that increasingly, you or a loved one may be saved be such a device at some point! Given that less than 10% of cardiac arrest victims survive, knowing where the nearest defibrillator is located could be extremely valuable in saving lives.
About the My Heart Map competition… Armed with a free app installed on their mobile phones, contest participants will snap pictures of the lifesaving devices — which are used to restore cardiac arrest victims’ hearts to their normal rhythm – wherever they find them in public places around the city. Participants will use the app to geotag the photos with their location and details about the device like its manufacturer. Then, they’ll send them to the research team via the app itself or the project’s web site
For more information about the contest, please visit: http://www.med.upenn.edu/myheartmap/
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/myheartmap
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/myheartmap