A revolutionary new app is set to help heart attack victims by sending alerts to people who might be able to help before emergency services arrive.
According to MTI, Hungary’s National Ambulance Service (OMSZ) has partnered with software developer Alerant Informatika, the local charity of the Order of Malta and the Hungarian Resuscitation Society, to develop the product.
The app will work by sending an alert to the device of those who have downloaded it, and highlight the exact GPS co-ordinates of the victim. Those who are closest to the victim will hopefully be able to help before emergency services arrive.
The app alerts people within a 500 meter radius of the victim, giving them a chance to start CPR even before the ambulance arrives.
Zoltán Ónodi-Szűcs, state secretary for health, said the app is unique in Europe and an exemplary product of cooperation between the civil and state sectors.
He added that the odds of a heart attack victim surviving are greatly increased if somebody starts CPR before the arrival of the paramedics.
The “Heart City” app has already been downloaded more than 5,000 times and works only in Budapest at the moment, but a country-wide rollout is expected by early next year.