Anchorage launches app to crowdsource potentially life-saving help

Anchorage residents are now able to download and use PulsePoint, a free smartphone application that sends alerts to people within a 1-mile radius of a potentially life-threatening emergency to recruit assistance before paramedics arrive.

Municipal emergency officials in Anchorage announced the launch of the app during a Friday afternoon press conference.

Officials say that the idea behind the app is that the sooner a person experiencing sudden cardiac arrest receives help — even if it’s just a few minutes before emergency responders arrive — the more likely that person will survive.

“What we’re hoping to do with PulsePoint is notify people in the vicinity of a cardiac arrest that know how to perform CPR so that they can provide life-saving care while we wait for the arrival of emergency medical services,” Anchorage Fire Department fire chief Doug Schrage said Friday.

The notifications are triggered by certain calls to a local emergency dispatch center: those involving reports of people who have stopped breathing or who no longer have a pulse, either from an overdose, heart attack, trauma or another kind of medical emergency.

Community responders have the potential to increase the survival rate of those experiencing cardiac arrest because every second counts, Dr. Mike Levy, Anchorage EMS areawide medical director with the Anchorage Fire Department, told reporters Friday.

Every minute a person in cardiac arrest goes without CPR, there’s about a 10% decrease in that person’s likelihood of survival. So even though it typically takes EMS responders in the municipality only a few minutes to arrive, it can still be too late, Levy said.

The app also allows responders and members of the public to see on a map where and when different types of emergencies are occurring, like wildfires and serious accidents.

[Anchorage police officers are now carrying overdose-reversing drug naloxone]

All residents are encouraged to download and use the application, called PulsePoint Respond, even if they are not Red Cross certified, Schrage said. Anchorage Fire Department dispatchers are able to walk community responders through how to perform CPR in real time, he said, though he encouraged Alaskans to learn CPR.

In Alaska, PulsePoint — which has been deployed in more than 5,000 cities worldwide — was first used in Fairbanks in 2019. Until now, Fairbanks was the only region in the state using the app.

Assistant fire chief William Kays said that the approximately $10,000 startup cost for PulsePoint, and an $8,000 annual fee thereafter, will come out of the Anchorage Fire Department’s operating budget.

The PulsePoint Respond app is available for iOS and Android devices.