Good Smartphone Activated Medics

Last updated
Good Smartphone Activated Medics (GoodSAM)
Developer(s) Ali Ghorbangholi; Mark Wilson
Initial release2014 (2014)
Stable release
*Android:
Alerter 3.1 (October 26, 2014;9 years ago (2014-10-26)) [±]
  • Android:
    Responder 3.0.2 (October 9, 2014;9 years ago (2014-10-09)) [±]
  • iOS:
    Alerter 3.0.1 (November 8, 2014;9 years ago (2014-11-08)) [±]
  • iOS:
    Responder 3.0.1 (November 8, 2014;9 years ago (2014-11-08)) [±]
  • Windows Phone:
    Alerter 1.1.0.2 (September 14, 2014;9 years ago (2014-09-14)) [±]
  • Windows Phone:
    Responder 1.0.0.0 (November 6, 2014;9 years ago (2014-11-06)) [±]
Operating system Android, iOS, Windows Phone
Available inEnglish, French, Spanish and Afrikaans
Website goodsamapp.org

GoodSAM is a global emergency and volunteer service platform [1] [2] and associated community co-founded by Mark Wilson OBE, Ali Ghorbangholi OBE and Ali Haddad in 2013. [3] It is used by ambulance, police, fire, government, charity and health services to improve immediate emergency management, largely through video enabling Instant-On-Scene video assessment and from the platform's ability to alert trusted responders to provide immediate help. [4] It is also the platform used to deploy nearly 800,000 NHS Volunteers across the UK to support those isolating or suffering with Covid [5]

Contents

The platform is used globally with extensive roll outs in the UK, New Zealand, Australia, USA, Canada and Papua New Guinea. [6] [7] [8]

Origins and cardiac arrest

The GoodSAM platform was originally created to minimise hypoxic brain injury following trauma (a phenomenon known as impact brain apnoea, [9] however, its role in cardiac arrest and other emergencies was immediately apparent. The system was adopted by London Ambulance Service, Ambulance Victoria and St John New Zealand where it has saved many lives. It has subsequently rolled out to most ambulance services across the UK and others around the world.

The GoodSAM Cardiac responder network is highly governed with over 300 organisations on the platform. It works by alerting those trained in CPR to cardiac arrests nearby through integration with the local ambulance / fire service. They provide CPR while the ambulance is en route. The platform also has a large Defibrillator registry thanks to the network of volunteers registering defibrillators.

Evidence of Benefit in Cardiac Arrest

There are many survivors thanks to a GoodSAM responder starting CPR and using an AED prior to ambulance arrival. A study using early data, when responder density was relatively low demonstrated that having a GoodSAM responder increased odds ratio of survival by three in two different ambulance services. [10] A different UK study showed that for people who were safely discharged from hospital following a cardiac arrest, people were twice as likely to survive when an alert was sent than when it was not. [11] [12]

Instant-On-Scene Video providing immediate care

In 2015 GoodSAM introduced “Instant-On-Scene” a powerful video system that is revolutionising emergency care. It enables emergency services to locate an emergency caller and open their  mobile phone camera by simply sending a text or email. This is unlike standard video conferencing systems and is specifically designed for emergency use. Video can be forwarded and controlled in a highly secure, auditable, and governed manner. This sharing within and between services enables better situational awareness and response.

The video system is now integrated into most ambulance and police services in the UK and is the national NHS 111 video system.

Evidence of Benefit from Instant-On-Scene Video

Multiple studies have shown evidence of benefit. Linderoth et al (2021) demonstrated in 700 emergency calls that GoodSAM video altered the assessment of a patient's condition in > 50% of calls and altered emergency response in 27.5%. [13] The same team also demonstrated significant improvement in rate, depth and position of CPR in GoodSAM video assisted CPR. [14]

Coronavirus and the UK's volunteer response programme

Because of GoodSAM's ability to connect those in need with those who can help, it became the platform to support the NHS Volunteer Responder programme. This programme recruited 800,000 volunteers providing a range of supporting roles to their local community who may have had to shield or isolate because of covid. Roles include Check in and Chat, delivery of food, pharmacies, pulse oximeters, transport of patients and equipment and volunteer vaccination stewards. [15] This has spawned the concept of “micro-volunteering” and may well be one of the positive legacies of the pandemic.

GoodSam has been used in the UK to manage NHS volunteers in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Police and fire

GoodSAM's platform has integrated with over half of UK Police services. The instant Location function has saved many lives, from people trapped in lorries to people abducted. The video functionality is changing domestic abuse management and enabling officers to assess situations remotely. There are many other features such as hot spot policing and Police ID.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emergency medical services</span> Services providing acute medical care

Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. They may also be known as a first aid squad, FAST squad, emergency squad, ambulance squad, ambulance corps, life squad or by other initialisms such as EMAS or EMARS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardiopulmonary resuscitation</span> Emergency procedure for cardiac arrest

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation, or mouth to mouth in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person who is in cardiac arrest. It is recommended for those who are unresponsive with no breathing or abnormal breathing, for example, agonal respirations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Automated external defibrillator</span> Portable electronic medical device

An automated external defibrillator or automatic electronic defibrillator (AED) is a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses the life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias of ventricular fibrillation (VF) and pulseless ventricular tachycardia, and is able to treat them through defibrillation, the application of electricity which stops the arrhythmia, allowing the heart to re-establish an effective rhythm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Certified first responder</span> Person who provides pre-hospital care for medical emergencies

A certified first responder is a person who has completed a course and received certification in providing pre-hospital care for medical emergencies. Certified individuals should have received much more instruction than someone who is trained in basic first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) but they are not necessarily a substitute for more advanced emergency medical care rendered by emergency medical technicians and paramedics. First responders typically provide advanced first aid level care, CPR, and automated external defibrillator (AED) usage. The term "certified first responder" is not to be confused with "first responder", which is a generic term referring to the first medically trained responder to arrive on scene and medically trained telecommunication operators who provide pre-arrival medical instructions as trained Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMD). Many police officers and firefighters are required to receive training as certified first responders. Advanced medical care is typically provided by EMS, although some police officers and firefighters also train to become emergency medical technicians or paramedics.

Basic life support (BLS) is a level of medical care which is used for patients with life-threatening illnesses or injuries until they can be given full medical care by advanced life support providers. It can be provided by trained medical personnel, such as emergency medical technicians, and by qualified bystanders.

The Seattle & King County Emergency Medical Services System is a fire-based two-tier response system providing prehospital basic and advanced life support services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London Ambulance Service</span> Ambulance service in London

The London Ambulance Service NHS Trust (LAS) is an NHS trust responsible for operating ambulances and answering and responding to urgent and emergency medical situations within the London region of England. The service responds to 999 phone calls across the region, and 111 phone calls from certain parts, providing triage and advice to enable an appropriate level of response.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ABC (medicine)</span> Initialism mnemonics

ABC and its variations are initialism mnemonics for essential steps used by both medical professionals and lay persons when dealing with a patient. In its original form it stands for Airway, Breathing, and Circulation. The protocol was originally developed as a memory aid for rescuers performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and the most widely known use of the initialism is in the care of the unconscious or unresponsive patient, although it is also used as a reminder of the priorities for assessment and treatment of patients in many acute medical and trauma situations, from first-aid to hospital medical treatment. Airway, breathing, and circulation are all vital for life, and each is required, in that order, for the next to be effective: a viable Airway is necessary for Breathing to provide oxygenated blood for Circulation. Since its development, the mnemonic has been extended and modified to fit the different areas in which it is used, with different versions changing the meaning of letters or adding other letters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emergency service response codes</span> Systems for categorizing emergency responses to reported events

Emergency service response codes are predefined systems used by emergency services to describe the priority and response assigned to calls for service. Response codes vary from country to country, jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and even agency to agency, with different methods used to categorize responses to reported events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Central Ambulance Service</span> Regional ambulance service in England

The South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) is the ambulance service for the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and most of Hampshire. It is a foundation trust of the National Health Service, and one of ten NHS ambulance trusts in England. As of August 2022, SCAS is currently rated Inadequate by the CQC following multiple failings within the trust. SCAS is the only Ambulance Service in England to have received this rating.

Hospital emergency codes are coded messages often announced over a public address system of a hospital to alert staff to various classes of on-site emergencies. The use of codes is intended to convey essential information quickly and with minimal misunderstanding to staff while preventing stress and panic among visitors to the hospital. Such codes are sometimes posted on placards throughout the hospital or are printed on employee identification badges for ready reference.

The chain of survival refers to a series of actions that, properly executed, reduce the mortality associated with sudden cardiac arrest. Like any chain, the chain of survival is only as strong as its weakest link. The six interdependent links in the chain of survival are early recognition of sudden cardiac arrest and access to emergency medical care, early CPR, early defibrillation, early advanced cardiac life support, and physical and emotional recovery. The first three links in the chain can be performed by lay bystanders, while the second three links are designated to medical professionals. Currently, between 70 and 90% of cardiac arrest patients die before they reach the hospital. However, a cardiac arrest does not have to be lethal if bystanders can take the right steps immediately.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medical Priority Dispatch System</span>

The Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS), sometimes referred to as the Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch System (AMPDS) is a unified system used to dispatch appropriate aid to medical emergencies including systematized caller interrogation and pre-arrival instructions. Priority Dispatch Corporation is licensed to design and publish MPDS and its various products, with research supported by the International Academy of Emergency Medical Dispatch (IAEMD). Priority Dispatch Corporation, in conjunction with the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch, have also produced similar systems for Police and Fire

Emergency medical services in Australia are provided by state ambulance services, which are a division of each state or territorial government, and by St John Ambulance in both Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Resuscitation Council UK (RCUK) is a healthcare charity focused on resuscitation education and training for healthcare professionals and bystander CPR awareness for the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincolnshire Integrated Voluntary Emergency Service</span>

Lincolnshire Integrated Voluntary Emergency Service, known commonly as LIVES, is a registered charity staffed by volunteers providing pre-hospital care services across Lincolnshire. LIVES operates alongside the East Midlands Ambulance Service to provide clinical and critical care skills as well as immediate medical responses in the form of community first responders. LIVES operates under the national pre-hospital care co-ordinating body, the British Association for Immediate Care. LIVES is a registered provider of healthcare with the Care Quality Commission

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PulsePoint</span> Mobile phone application


PulsePoint is a 911-connected mobile app that allows users to view and receive alerts on calls being responded to by fire departments and emergency medical services. The app's main feature, and where its name comes from, is that it sends alerts to users at the same time that dispatchers are sending the call to emergency crews. The goal is to increase the possibility that a victim in cardiac arrest will receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) quickly. The app uses the current location of a user and will alert them if someone in their vicinity is in need of CPR. The app, which interfaces with the local government public safety answering point, will send notifications to users only if the victim is in a public place and only to users that are in the immediate vicinity of the emergency. In February 2017, PulsePoint introduced a professional version called Verified Responder that also alerts in residential settings. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, PulsePoint is run by a public 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation of the same name. As of January 28, 2024, the foundation reported that connected agencies had requested the assistance of 856,000 nearby responders for 255,000 cardiac arrest events.

"PulsePoint is a 501(c)(3) public non-profit foundation building applications that help public safety agencies inform and engage their citizens."

The Virginia Beach Department of Emergency Medical Services is the 911 EMS provider for Virginia Beach, Virginia. Virginia Beach is the largest city in the United States with a volunteer based EMS system. Since the 1940s Virginia Beach has offered free pre-hospital emergency services through 10 volunteer rescue squads supported by 1,100+ volunteers throughout the city. Virginia beach EMS has also been a leader in a variety of pre-hospital technologies including 12-lead transmission,EZ-IO technology and therapeutic hypothermia,rapid sequence induction and intubation (RSII),video laryngoscope,end tidal CO2 monitoring,S T Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) and Stroke programs and community CardioPulmonary Resuscitation (CPR),among others. These programs and more have contributed to the 36% cardiac arrest survival rate (2012).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LUCAS device</span> Device to provide mechanical CPR

The Lund University Cardiopulmonary Assist System (LUCAS) device provides mechanical chest compressions to patients in cardiac arrest. It is mostly used in emergency medicine as an alternative to manual CPR because it provides consistent compressions at a fixed rate through difficult transport conditions and eliminates the physical strain on the person performing CPR. The first generation of the LUCAS device was pneumatic, while the second and third generations are battery-operated.

References

  1. ↑ "Alert nearby first aiders with GoodSAM app", WIRED, 27/08/2014
  2. ↑ "The emergency app which could save your life", SKY NEWS, 27/08/2014
  3. ↑ "London's Air Ambulance Doctor develops GoodSAM app" [ permanent dead link ], London's Air Ambulance, 26/08/2014
  4. ↑ ""App technology to save lives"". Archived from the original on 2015-01-30. Retrieved 2015-03-19.
  5. ↑ Digital Health https://www.digitalhealth.net/2020/03/goodsam-app-nhs-volunteers/
  6. ↑ "GPRS technology provides appropriate emergency response"
  7. ↑ "GoodSAM App set to revolutionise immediate medical assistance" [ permanent dead link ], Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable, 19/03/2014
  8. ↑ "Phone app emergency alert for medically trained", British Medical Association, 16/07/2014
  9. ↑ Wilson, Mark H.; Hinds, John; Grier, Gareth; Burns, Brian; Carley, Simon; Davies, Gareth (2016-08-01). "Impact brain apnoea – A forgotten cause of cardiovascular collapse in trauma". Resuscitation. 105: 52–58. doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2016.05.007. ISSN   0300-9572. PMID   27211834.
  10. ↑ Smith, Christopher M.; Wilson, Mark H.; Ghorbangholi, Ali; Hartley-Sharpe, Christopher; Gwinnutt, Carl; Dicker, Bridget; Perkins, Gavin D. (December 2017). "The use of trained volunteers in the response to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest – the GoodSAM experience". Resuscitation. 121: 123–126. doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2017.10.020. PMID   29079507.
  11. ↑ "More people survived a cardiac arrest when first aiders received a GoodSAM alert". NIHR Evidence. 2022-10-06. doi:10.3310/nihrevidence_54102. S2CID   253785210.
  12. ↑ Smith, Christopher M; Lall, Ranjit; Fothergill, Rachael T; Spaight, Robert; Perkins, Gavin D (2022-01-12). "The effect of the GoodSAM volunteer first-responder app on survival to hospital discharge following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest". European Heart Journal - Acute Cardiovascular Care. 11 (1): 20–31. doi:10.1093/ehjacc/zuab103. ISSN   2048-8726. PMC   8757292 . PMID   35024801.
  13. ↑ Linderoth, Gitte; Lippert, Freddy; Østergaard, Doris; Ersbøll, Annette K.; Meyhoff, Christian S.; Folke, Fredrik; Christensen, Helle C. (2021-09-06). "Live video from bystanders' smartphones to medical dispatchers in real emergencies". BMC Emergency Medicine. 21 (1): 101. doi: 10.1186/s12873-021-00493-5 . ISSN   1471-227X. PMC   8419944 . PMID   34488626.
  14. ↑ Linderoth, Gitte; Rosenkrantz, Oscar; Lippert, Freddy; Østergaard, Doris; Ersbøll, Annette K.; Meyhoff, Christian S.; Folke, Fredrik; Christensen, Helle.C. (November 2021). "Live video from bystanders' smartphones to improve cardiopulmonary resuscitation". Resuscitation. 168: 35–43. doi: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2021.08.048 . PMID   34509558. S2CID   237493958.
  15. ↑ "COVID-19: How to volunteer to help the coronavirus booster jab drive". Sky News. Retrieved 2022-04-03.
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