PulsePoint Contest Encourages Communities to Register AEDs

More than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) occur annually in the U.S., making it a leading cause of death. Survival rates nationally for sudden cardiac arrest are less than 10 percent.

However, cardiac arrest victims who receive a shock from a publicly available AED administered by a bystander prior to EMS arrival have 2-3 times better odds of survival to hospital discharge and more favorable outcomes. Without bystander AED use, 70 percent of cardiac arrest patients either die or survive with impaired brain function.

Despite the lifesaving potential of AEDs, they are of no value if they cannot be located and placed into service during a cardiac emergency.

This October, during Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month, the nonprofit PulsePoint Foundation is rewarding communities for identifying and registering AEDs.

Each AED registered from October 1 through 31 will gain an entry to win one of ten $500 Amazon gift cards. Collectively, the community that registers the most AEDs will be granted $5,000 toward the purchase of new AEDs from PulsePoint to provide to public safety staff or place in underserved parts of the community.

AEDs must be registered through the free PulsePoint AED app or online at AED.new. After verification, those AEDs are then added to the PulsePoint AED Registry to be shared with bystanders and 9-1-1 dispatchers during a cardiac emergency. The globally accessible PulsePoint AED Registry currently includes more than 126,000 AEDs.

Visit www.pulsepoint.org/aedcontest to download helpful resources and review the complete list of contest rules.

PulsePoint is a public 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation that builds applications for use by public safety agencies to increase community awareness during critical events. The PulsePoint Respond mobile app notifies trained individuals of the nearby need for CPR and the PulsePoint AED registry identifies AED locations for use by the public and 9-1-1 telecommunicators during emergency call taking. PulsePoint also provides specialized mobile apps for professional responders.