The Fürth Emergency Medicine Working Group (AGNF) hosted the event “Combating Sudden Cardiac Death – Strengthening Cities and Counties” on Wednesday, November 20, 2024, at the Fürth Town Hall. In addition to best-practice examples, app-based first responder alerting systems were presented. Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann and CSU parliamentary group chairman Klaus Holetschek provided political support for the format.
Klaus Meyer, Chairman of the Board of the Fürth Emergency Medicine Working Group, presented the FÜRTH SCHOCKT! initiative in his opening speech: “Within a short space of time, we have succeeded in establishing a network of first responders in the city and district of Fürth who are alerted via smartphone in the event of sudden cardiac death. At the same time, we pushed ahead with the installation of 24/7 accessible AEDs and were able to shorten the treatment-free interval until the arrival of the emergency services by the crucial minutes in numerous cases – and thus save lives.”
Every year, around 70,000 people die from sudden cardiac death nationwide, of which around 10,000 could survive if first aid was administered in time.
“We are therefore delighted that we are now able to implement our concept in other parts of the region with ERLANGEN SCHOCKT! and NÜRNBERGER LAND SCHOCKT!”, added Klaus Meyer.
Angelika Lange, Senior Impact and Project Manager at the ADAC Foundation, then presented the results of the study “Potential analysis for first responder alerting systems”. According to the survey, 79% of respondents in the population were not aware of first aid apps. However, 16% would be willing to register as first responders after the concept was explained to them.
In the survey, 40% of the control centers that receive emergency calls from the rescue services stated that they already use a first responder alerting system. 60% of those who did not yet have a system planned to introduce one within the next three years.
However, the study also highlighted the hurdles involved. The control centers cited a lack of legal foundations, funding difficulties and a lack of personnel as the biggest obstacles to the introduction of such systems.
Fortunately, the number of control centers using app-based first responder alerting has already continued to rise since the study was conducted in June 2024.
This trend was underlined by Klaus Holetschek, CSU parliamentary group leader and former Minister of State for Health and Care. As patron of the initiative to alert first responders in the Donau-Iller and Allgäu regions, he was able to report first-hand that, to his great delight, more and more people are becoming active as first responders.
Joachim Herrmann, Minister of the Interior, Sport and Integration, MdL, who is the patron of the event and the FÜRTH SCHOCKT! project, was proud of what has already been achieved: “Thanks to the project, 212 defibrillators are now registered in the system in Fürth and the surrounding area” and added: “The Free State of Bavaria recently extended the funding for such defibrillators until the end of 2026 and increased the budget for the granting authorities by 350,000 euros.”
Apps that recognize which first responders are in the vicinity of the scene and show them the shortest route to the nearest defibrillator and the scene of the incident are central to alerting first responders as quickly as possible. Active in Bavaria are the app providers TEAM BAYERN Lebensretter and Region der Lebensretter e.V. as well as Mobile Retter e.V. as a service provider for the associated project organization.
Christopher Glas, head of the TEAM BAYERN app run by the Bavarian Red Cross, emphasized that his system is used to raise the alarm in both disaster and emergency situations. In the TEAM BAYERN lifesaving sub-area, for example, helpers are alerted via the control centre in the event of cardiovascular arrest and can provide additional assistance in an emergency – across all aid organizations, of course.
Stefan Prasse, Managing Director of Mobile Retter e.V., emphasized the importance of good project organization in parallel with the introduction of an alerting app. The association not only supports the introduction of an app, but also the recruitment and support of volunteer first aiders.
Prof. Dr. Michael Müller, 1st Chairman of Region der Lebensretter e.V., reported on the ongoing development of the lifesaver app, which is already being used in 66 local authorities across Germany and can draw on a network of almost 22,000 first aiders. By optimizing the calculation of the route, the time to arrival of the first responders could be further reduced.
In the concluding discussions and networking talks, important contacts were made that will hopefully bring us closer to the goal of establishing systems throughout Bavaria to activate first aiders in the event of sudden cardiac death.
The representatives of the Healthy Regions Plus, aid organizations, rescue associations and control centres in attendance certainly made good use of the opportunity to exchange ideas with doctors, politicians and scientists.
