SRxA’s Word on Health loves a good challenge – and they don’t come much better than this. A group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania are set to save lives with cell phone cameras… and they need help.
The MyHeartMap Challenge, will be a month-long contest starting in mid January. It will invite Philadelphians to the streets and social media sites to locate as many automated external defibrillators (AEDs) as they can. AEDs are lifesaving devices used to deliver a controlled electric shock and restore normal cardiac rhythm following a heart attack. AED’s are widely used in hospitals and by pre-hospital providers such as EMT’s; but they can also be used by people with no medical training since they provide audio instructions that talk users through the process of performing CPR and defibrillation.
There’s an estimated one million AEDs across the nation. Some are hung clearly on the walls in airports and casinos, but others are tucked away in restaurant closets and under cash registers in coffee shops. Since AEDs are not subject to regulations that would allow their makers to know where or when their devices are being used there’s currently no uniform system to track their location.
The contest hopes to change that. Furthermore, it’s just a first step in what the Penn team hopes will grow to become a nationwide AED registry project that will put the lifesaving devices in the hands of anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Armed with a free app on their mobile phones, contest participants will snap pictures of the lifesaving devices wherever they find them in public places around the city. Contestants will then use the app to geotag the photos with their location and details about the device and send them to the research team via the app itself or the project’s web site.
The data collected will be used to create an updated app linking locations of all public AEDs in the city with a person’s GPS coordinates to help them locate the nearest AED during an emergency.
Better still – the person or team who finds the most AEDs during the contest will win $10,000. Additionally, people who find various pre-located “golden AEDs” around the city will win $50.
“More and more, scientists are learning that we can benefit from the wisdom of the crowd,” says MyHeartMap Challenge leader Raina Merchant, MD, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine. “Participation from ordinary citizens will allow us to answer questions and make the city safer than our team could ever do on its own.”
MyHeartMap Challenge participants can register as individuals or teams, and the Penn researchers suggest participants develop creative ways to maximize their chances of winning. If, for instance, a team can figure out how to use their social networks via Twitter and Facebook to engage people who work in public locations in Philadelphia to take photos of AEDs, the team could win $10,000 dollars without even leaving their desks. These “virtual teams” could prove to be faster and more efficient than any individual working alone. Participants can also organize AED scavenger hunts or mini-contests to locate all the AEDs in a workplace building, or compete against friends to see who can find the most devices. The researchers encourage participants to start strategizing and forming teams now so they can be first out of the gate to win.
What are you waiting for?
SRxA's Word on Health 