Community-based response system

• US 10,178,534 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2015
• Issued: 01/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zoll Medical Corporation (Asahi Kasei Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Zoll Medical Corporation (Asahi Kasei Corporation)
• Inventors: Barash, David, Totman, Mark, Freeman, Gary A., McGough, Timothy Sean
• Primary Examiner(s): Agosta, Stephen M D
• Application Number:
  US14/927,851
• Publication Number:
  US 20160100302A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,166 Days
• Field of Search: 4554041, 4554042, 4554141, 4554561-4566, 455457, 455466, 3703102, 370338
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0211 Combination with medical sensor, e.g. for measuring heart rate, temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/005 Alarm destination chosen according to a hierarchy of available destinations, e.g. if hospital does not answer send to police station
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/14 Central alarm receiver or annunciator arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/001 Signalling to an emergency team, e.g. firemen
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/003 Signalling to neighbouring houses
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72418 for supporting emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for communicating information to medical responders includes registering a plurality of individuals as potential responders for medical problems, receiving at a central service an indication that a person is having a medical problem and receiving information that identifies a current location of the person, and identifying, from among the registered plurality of individuals, one or more registered individuals who are currently in close proximity to the person having a medical problem. The method also includes transmitting, to the one or more registered individuals, information that identifies the location of the person having a medical problem. The one or more individuals comprise lay responders who are not assigned responsibility to provide lifesaving services in an area around the current location of the person.

Claims

1. A medical equipment management system comprising a notification service comprising processor-executable instructions that are configured to cause a lay response server that is separate from a dispatch server to:

post a sign-up software application that is Internet accessible;

receive, prior to an emergency event and from the sign-up software application downloaded onto a mobile computing device associated with a lay responder, enrollment information provided to the sign-up software application by the lay responder and comprising lay responder information;

associate the lay responder with an account for sending information to the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder;

receive, from the dispatch server, emergency event information received by the dispatch server, wherein the emergency event information comprises a location of the emergency event;

receive, from the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder, a location of the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder;

receive storage location information for one or more publicly accessible automated external defibrillators (AEDs) via a volunteer survey of a geographic area comprising the one or more publicly accessible automated external defibrillators (AEDs); and

based at least in part on the location of the emergency event, provide to the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder a notification about the emergency event that includes mapping information indicative of the location of the emergency event, the storage location information for the one or more publicly accessible AEDs, and the location of the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder relative to the location of the emergency event,

wherein the one or more publicly accessible AEDs are in geographic proximity to the emergency event and

wherein the storage location information is verified based on the volunteer survey of the geographic area.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage location information comprises an availability of the one or more publicly accessible AEDs and the mapping information comprises the availability of the one or more publicly accessible AEDs.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions are configured to cause the lay response server to receive, from the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder, an indication that the lay responder is available in response to the notification about the emergency event.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the lay responder information comprises CPR training information.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the lay responder is an individual that is not assigned responsibility by a lifesaving organization to serve emergency events.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor-executable instructions are configured to cause the lay response server that is separate from the dispatch server to receive, via the sign-up software application, status information for the one or more publicly accessible AEDs.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the status information for the one or more publicly accessible AEDs comprises one or more of an indication that the one or more publicly accessible AEDs are operational and an indication that the storage location information for the one or more publicly accessible AEDs is unchanged.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the notification service is configured to provide the notification about the emergency event to the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder and is not configured to provide for dispatch of professional responders, wherein the professional responders are agents of an organization responsible for providing emergency services and the lay responder is not an agent of the organization responsible for providing emergency services.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the dispatch server is configured to receive the emergency event information from a 911 calling network and to provide for dispatch of professional responders, wherein the professional responders are agents of an organization responsible for providing emergency services.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the sign-up software application comprises a mapping application.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor-executable instructions are configured to cause the lay response service to receive wireless communications from the one or more publicly accessible AEDs.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the wireless communications from the one or more publicly accessible AEDs are indicative of a status of the one or more publicly accessible AEDs and wherein the processor-executable instructions are configured to cause the lay response server to monitor the status of the one or more publicly accessible AEDs.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification service is configured to provide the notification about the emergency event to the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder and is not configured to provide for dispatch of professional responders, wherein the professional responders are agents of an organization responsible for providing emergency services and the lay responder is not an agent of the organization responsible for providing emergency services.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the dispatch server is configured to receive the emergency event information from a 911 calling network and to provide for dispatch of professional responders, wherein the professional responders are agents of an organization responsible for providing emergency services.

23. The method of claim 1 comprising receiving, at the lay response server, wireless communications from the one or more publicly accessible AEDs.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the wireless communications from the one or more publicly accessible AEDs are indicative of a status of the one or more publicly accessible AEDs and comprising monitoring, by the lay response server, the status of the one or more publicly accessible AEDs.

13. A computer-implemented method for communicating information to medical responders, the method comprising:

posting a sign-up software application that is Internet accessible;

receiving, at a notification service of a lay response server that is separate from a dispatch server, prior to an emergency event and from the sign-up software application downloaded onto a mobile computing device associated with a lay responder, enrollment information provided to the sign-up software application by the lay responder and comprising lay responder information;

associating the lay responder with an account for sending information to the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder;

receiving, at the notification service of the lay response server, from the dispatch server, emergency event information received by the dispatch server, wherein the emergency event information comprises a location of the emergency event;

receiving, at the notification service of the lay response server, a location of the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder;

receiving storage location information for one or more publicly accessible automated external defibrillators (AEDs) based on a volunteer survey of a geographic area comprising the one or more publicly accessible automated external defibrillators (AEDs);

based at least in part on the location of the emergency event, providing, by the notification service of the lay response server, to the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder, a notification about the emergency event that includes mapping information indicative of the location of the emergency event, the storage location information for the one or more publicly accessible AEDs, and the location of the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder relative to the location of the emergency event,

wherein the one or more publicly accessible AEDs are in geographic proximity to the emergency event and

wherein the storage location information is verified based on the volunteer survey of the geographic area.

14. The method of claim 13 comprising receiving, at the lay response server via the sign-up software application, status information for the one or more publicly accessible AEDs.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the status information for the one or more publicly accessible AEDs comprises one or more of an indication that the one or more publicly accessible AEDs are operational and an indication that the storage location information for the one or more publicly accessible AEDs is unchanged.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the storage location information comprises an availability of the one or more publicly accessible AEDs and the mapping information comprises the availability of the one or more publicly accessible AEDs.

17. The method of claim 13 comprising receiving, at the lay response server from the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder, an indication that the lay responder is available in response to the notification about the emergency event.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the lay responder information comprises CPR training information.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the lay responder is an individual that is not assigned responsibility by a lifesaving organization to serve emergency events.

22. The method of claim 13 wherein the sign-up software application comprises a mapping application.

25. A computer program product comprising computer-readable instructions tangibly embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable storage device, the instructions executable by one or more processing devices to cause a lay response server that is separate from a dispatch server to:

post a sign-up software application that is Internet accessible;

receive, at the lay response server that is separate from the dispatch server, prior to an emergency event and from the sign-up software application downloaded onto a mobile computing device associated with a lay responder, enrollment information provided to the sign-up software application by the lay responder and comprising lay responder information;

associate the lay responder with an account for sending information to the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder;

receive, at the lay response server, from the dispatch server, emergency event information received by the dispatch server, wherein the emergency event information comprises a location of the emergency event;

receive, from the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder, a location of the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder;

receive storage location information for one or more publicly accessible automated external defibrillators (AEDs) based on a volunteer survey of a geographic area comprising the one or more publicly accessible automated external defibrillators (AEDs);

based at least in part on the location of the emergency event, provide, by a notification service of the lay response server to the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder, a notification about the emergency event that includes mapping information indicative of the location of the emergency event, the storage location information for the one or more publicly accessible AEDs, and the location of the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder relative to the location of the emergency event,

wherein the one or more publicly accessible AEDs are in geographic proximity to the emergency event and

wherein the storage location information is verified based on the volunteer survey of the geographic area.

26. The computer program product of claim 25 wherein the instructions are executable by the one or more processing devices to cause the lay response server that is separate from the dispatch server to receive, via the sign-up software application, status information for the one or more publicly accessible AEDs.

27. The computer program product of claim 26 wherein the status information for the one or more publicly accessible AEDs comprises one or more of an indication that the one or more publicly accessible AEDs are operational and an indication that the storage location information for the one or more publicly accessible AEDs is unchanged.

28. The computer program product of claim 25 wherein the storage location information comprises an availability of the one or more publicly accessible AEDs and the mapping information comprises the availability of the one or more publicly accessible AEDs.

29. The computer program product of claim 25 wherein the instructions are executable by the one or more processing devices to cause the lay response server that is separate from the dispatch server to receive, from the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder, an indication that the lay responder is available in response to the notification about the emergency event.

30. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the lay responder information comprises CPR training information.

31. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the lay responder is an individual that is not assigned responsibility by a lifesaving organization to serve emergency events.

32. The computer program product of claim 25 wherein the notification service is configured to provide the notification about the emergency event to the mobile computing device associated with the lay responder and is not configured to provide for dispatch of professional responders, wherein the professional responders are agents of an organization responsible for providing emergency services and the lay responder is not an agent of the organization responsible for providing emergency services.

33. The computer program product of claim 25 wherein the dispatch server is configured to receive the emergency event information from a 911 calling network and to provide for dispatch of professional responders, wherein the professional responders are agents of an organization responsible for providing emergency services.

34. The computer program product of claim 25 wherein the sign-up software application comprises a mapping application.

35. The computer program product of claim 25 wherein the instructions are executable by the one or more processing devices to cause the lay response server that is separate from the dispatch server to receive wireless communications from the one or more publicly accessible AEDs.

36. The computer program product of claim 35 wherein the wireless communications from the one or more publicly accessible AEDs are indicative of a status of the one or more publicly accessible AEDs and wherein the instructions are executable by the one or more processing devices to cause the lay response server that is separate from the dispatch server to monitor the status of the one or more publicly accessible AEDs.