Smartphone CPR: Improve Survival Rates
- A study in Australia reveals that a smartphone application designed to alert trained bystanders to nearby out-of-hospital cardiac arrests can substantially improve survival rates.
- The analysis, encompassing over 9000 cardiac arrest cases in Victoria and published in the Medical Journal of Australia, indicated a 37% increase in the odds of survival to...
- Notably,in cases where SAVRs arrived first,34.6% of patients exhibited an initially shockable rhythm by the time EMS arrived, compared to 26% in cases without volunteer intervention.
Trained volunteers are now the frontline of cardiac arrest care, thanks to a smartphone app thatS rewriting survival odds. A recent Australian study reveals a meaningful boost in survival rates when bystanders arrive before emergency medical services, providing crucial cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). With early intervention, patients show a greater chance of a shockable rhythm upon EMS arrival, a vital step in saving lives. The app also increases the odds of bystander defibrillation sixteenfold. news Directory 3 is following how this approach could transform outcomes globally.Discover how thes apps are shaping the future of emergency response systems.
Smartphone app Boosts CPR Survival Rates in Cardiac Arrests
Updated June 13, 2025
A study in Australia reveals that a smartphone application designed to alert trained bystanders to nearby out-of-hospital cardiac arrests can substantially improve survival rates. The key is that these volunteer responders, equipped to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), must arrive before emergency medical services (EMS).
The analysis, encompassing over 9000 cardiac arrest cases in Victoria and published in the Medical Journal of Australia, indicated a 37% increase in the odds of survival to discharge for patients attended by a smartphone-activated volunteer responder (SAVR) prior to EMS arrival. Though, no survival benefit was observed when SAVRs arrived after EMS personnel.
Notably,in cases where SAVRs arrived first,34.6% of patients exhibited an initially shockable rhythm by the time EMS arrived, compared to 26% in cases without volunteer intervention. This highlights the importance of early intervention in maintaining a patient’s condition until professional help arrives.
Belinda Delardes, a paramedic and PhD candidate at Ambulance Victoria in Melbourne, emphasized that the app-based CPR intervention isn’t necessarily reviving patients. Instead, ”they’re keeping them wiht enough circulation that when we arrive, we can do something about it,” she said.
The five-year study found that in approximately half of the 1158 cases attended by volunteer responders, the volunteers arrived before EMS. In these instances, the odds of bystander CPR administration where 7.6 times higher, and the odds of bystander defibrillation were 16 times higher, compared to cases without volunteer assistance. The GoodSAM app, used in the study, alerts the three nearest volunteers within a specific radius of a reported cardiac arrest and indicates the location of nearby automated external defibrillators (AEDs).
Garry Jennings, MD, chief medical advisor at the Heart Foundation of Australia, noted the self-organizing nature of successful interventions. “What we’ve found in the most successful events is that people just self-organize, and one person does this, and another person does that, because that’s helpful if you know what you’re doing,” he said. The app excludes traumatic cardiac arrests or situations posing safety risks to responders.
“Every second counts when somebody’s had a cardiac arrest, and if they happen to have the kind of rhythm problem that a defibrillator will revert, than it’s absolutely life-saving,” Jennings said.
Delardes emphasized the important impact of these programs, stating, “when we’re talking about survival and, for a lot of these patients, possibly 10 or 20 years of living really well, that’s an enormous impact.”
What’s next
Researchers hope to secure continued funding for similar programs, encouraging community members to sign up and become volunteer responders, ultimately improving cardiac arrest survival rates.