Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Save a life with your iPhone or iPod touch
If you came upon someone who was injured or had suffered a medical emergency, would you know how to react? In the midst of a crisis situation, even citizens who have been trained in first aid sometimes forget what they need to do to help save a life. Several iPhone apps are now available to give you a hand. PhoneAid, First Aid, and 1st Reponse: Emergency Kit are all designed to be at your fingertips in the event of an emergency. Although it might be difficult or impossible to read an iPhone screen and perform CPR at the same time, the apps can help you or someone else give instructions in a panic situation.
Entanke's PhoneAid (click opens iTunes) provides verbal prompts telling you how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the Heimlich Maneuver on adults and children. It also has a handy "First Aid A-Z" section covering medical emergencies from bee stings to strokes. PhoneAid, shown at right, is available in the App Store at no cost until October 26. After that time, the price will be US$2.99.
Intranda Software and neeed apps hope to save a few lives with their new iPhone / iPod touch app, First Aid (click opens iTunes). The US$0.99 app, available in English, French, German, and Spanish, uses a different approach than PhoneAid by displaying a series of yes/no questions that take you through the process of helping a person in a medical emergency. There's also a large green call button that automatically dials your local emergency responders and prompts you for the information you'll need to provide. Rather than providing verbal instructions, First Aid has a set of flash card-like pictures that show you what to do to check airway, breathing, and circulation.
1st Response: Emergency Kit (click opens iTunes), from Creative Coefficient, combines the best of the first two apps and then goes further in terms of being a helpful emergency tool. The one-tap emergency call screen is not only pre-populated with the number of the local responders, but also has one-tap dialing for your own personal emergency contacts.
A number of How-To resources built into Emergency Kit provide detailed information on what to do in dangerous situations, how to perform basic roadside repairs to your vehicle, and a complete illustrated first aid guide. If you're performing first aid on a person in a dark location, Emergency Kit has a light that can be adjusted from pinpoint to floodlight settings. It also has a universal SOS and distress strobe that is visible from up to 170 yards (155+ meters) away.
Even more helpful is that Emergency Kit can give information to responders in case you're the one who is injured. A medical profile contains information on your physician, medical alerts, current health status, insurance, and more. 1st Response: Emergency Kit is available for $2.99 until November 1st, at which time the pricing may change. The app has been localized in English, German, French, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.
While some iPhone and iPod touch apps have dubious utility, a first aid app can give you the confidence and knowledge you need to assist others in an emergency.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tyrannous said 12:41PM on 10-20-2008
dont let someone spot you browsing this application over your sholder while commuting.... AWKWARD
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Eric said 8:51PM on 10-21-2008
You're beautiful
Brady J. Frey said 1:59PM on 10-24-2008
Uh, Eric - you know that's just his icon, he's weblog says he's a guy... not to say you may not like that, just wanted to point it out:)
Archion said 1:38PM on 10-20-2008
I see lawsuits coming from improperly given aid on this one... Well at least in the US, since people are so damn sue happy over here.
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Øivind said 1:53PM on 10-20-2008
Well, you can't sue a person for giving you incorrect first aid, so I highly doubt you can sue the developer of the application as long as all the information in it is correct.
Øivind said 1:51PM on 10-20-2008
Save a life? If you waste time on that application when a person needs CPR and mouth-to-mouth, you will significantly decrease the chance of survival for the person you're trying to save. It's much better to spend 1 minute memorizing how to do mouth-to-mouth and CPR if you don't know how (Like: Remove objects from throat, tilt head backwards, fill lungs with air twice, 15 heart compressions at 100bpm correctly placed on the sternum and repeat). Seems like a good application for most other emergencies.
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Archion said 2:03PM on 10-20-2008
You can be sued unless your locality has what is referred to as a "Good Samaritan" law, not all localities have this law.
Øivind said 2:20PM on 10-20-2008
That's good to know. So the first rule of first aid, if you're in the US, is to not help people unless you're sure the locality has that law.
psxp said 4:50PM on 10-20-2008
heh.. I remember learning about the US way of lawsuits when I was a kid (many many years ago) and how you can be suied for trying to help someone..
I bet in the US someone will sue another person because they farted.
Tim Brazer said 2:18PM on 10-20-2008
Sure! I'll get this app. Then when the times comes to use it, it will crash. Hopefully not though.
Of course if you have the 1st Gen. iPod Touch you can't here the directions, but you can see them I hope.
2nd Gen. users are all set though.
Great post! 8^)
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Steven Finch said 3:00PM on 10-20-2008
This is a great tip. I also have another great apple ipod tip over at Crenk.Update your ipod touch firmware to 2.0 free, http://crenk.com/how-to-update-ipod-touch-to-firmware-20-for-free/
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Anders said 3:05PM on 10-20-2008
I think you really should take a look at Phone Aid, the only First Aid app that are really serious. It states clearly that it is for "remembering" and supports "acquierd knowledge". It focuses on correct guidelines and First Aid/ CPR only, not car repair and other things which makes 1st response look rather unserious!
It is the only app with spoken word leading you through, hopefully making you remember. You sholud not have to tap your iPhone answering yes/no questions while rescusitating. You just listen and act!
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Ernie Oporto said 3:43PM on 10-20-2008
Unfortunately my iPhone battery ran out just as I was half way through saving their life. At least I tried and that's what counts, right? How about taking a real First Aid or CPR course and KNOWING what you're doing.
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Andy said 4:16PM on 10-20-2008
Absolutely should people take a proper hands on course above all! What you seem to miss is that Phone Aid is designed just for this. It is not a substitute for a course or for calling medical services. It is a brilliant audiovisual tool to them who gets stressed and fail to recall their knowledge. Research has shown that auditory and simple visual guidance can help.
http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/117/5/704?eaf
I would definately go for the Phone Aid app!
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Geo said 6:19PM on 10-20-2008
I am no expert in first aid so I will hold back on critiquing that area. I read through a few chapters and there is a definite stiltedness in the English used. Seems as if it was translated from French or Spanish. A professional editor should review the text.
Also, include a list of international 911 equivalent numbers. In Spain we use 061. There are also numbers for poison control, etc.
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Mike said 7:44PM on 10-20-2008
I'm not so fond of the "audio" idea, and even less of the "list of actions" idea.
I prefer the walkthrough approach of "first aid". If I'm in a stressful situation, I don't want to choose "which one of the 20 tutorials covers this case here?", but would prefer clear advise according to the situation at hand, based on simple questions. "First Aid" does just that. When I attended my first aid course, the instructor handed us a small card with just such a walkthrough.
And: most of the time you are not alone on an place of accident, so you HAVE some time to look informations up and give some useful advise to others.
All the Apps state that they won't render a real first aid course useless, so that's fine with me.
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(01) said 8:04PM on 10-20-2008
I'm not sure how the medical information feature of 1st Response is really that great...unless you open the app before you bleed out and hope it doesn't crash. Additionally, I think most medics will be more concerned about getting you to the hospital than checking your phone. Just a thought :-)
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Jason said 9:13AM on 10-21-2008
If I come up on someone who I suspect needs CPR, the first thing I would do is call 911. This would put my phone into emergency mode and I wouldn't even be able to get to this app. If they did need CPR, I would ask the 911 operator to walk me through it.
That said, I think this app is great and if you are on a scene where someone else can call 911, this would help you to get started quickly and remember your CPR training. Also, I think this app should remain free or a chunk of the proceeds go to Red Cross....
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The Tuesday Night Tech Show said 3:56PM on 10-21-2008
There's also another first aid app (webapp) that I found awhile back at http://firstaid.ifthensoft.com which isn't too bad. They have some other good webapps at the main site as well. (which is located at http://webapps.ifthensoft.com).
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CYtj said 8:15AM on 10-22-2008
And another one that is open (creative commons, non-commercial). Download + Use is for free!
Here you go: http://www.firstai.de/english/download-iphone.html
Project's name is "First Aid on your Mobile"
There is a German version including audio, but there isn't English yet. Seems that the guy who develops it needs some English proofreaders beforehand...
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