Use of Mobile Phones Helps Dispatch Laypersons to Cardiac Arrests

Lay responders trained in CPR arrived before EMS in more than half of nontraumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.

In dense urban areas, a mobile phone positioning system can locate mobile phones within an accuracy of 0 to 75 m. In a study conducted in the most densely populated section of Stockholm, Sweden, researchers compared response times of volunteer mobile responders trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to those of emergency medical services (EMS) in suspected or actual nontraumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).

After receiving an emergency call for suspected OHCA, the dispatcher activated EMS followed immediately by the mobile service, which identified registered mobile responders within 500 m of the patient and texted them the patient's location. During the 6-month study, an average of 12 mobile responders arrived for each of …

Reviewing Author

John A. Marx, MD, FAAEM