Kochi: A mobile app with an emergency button which when activated guides the user to the nearest hospital with help of GPS in the event of a heart attack has arrived. The Cardiological Society of India (CSI) is set to launch the app which would also help a user accessing ambulance and reach the nearest hospital with facilities for angioplasty. The app, named HeartsApp, to be launched during the ongoing four-day 68th annual conference of CSI being held here now, will have information about heart diseases, prevention and risk assessment, too.
“There is facility to call your relative or friend or any other person you prefer by pressing another emergency button while facing symptoms of heart attack,” said Dr Geevar Zacharia, chief co-ordinator of CSI annual conference. “There is facility to store three numbers in this and we plan to make the call move from one number to another automatically if the receiver does not pick it up.” Hospitals with angioplasty facility in 15 km radius will first pop up followed by hospitals without the facility. “The patient can choose the hospital,” he said. “The call will go to the emergency wing of the hospital.”
Dr Zacharia said the CSI decided to come out with the app after identifying that the ‘golden hour’, the first one hour of suffering a heart attack is crucial and half of the deaths happen during that period. “There is nothing called first aid in heart attack,” he said. “The patient has to be rushed to the hospital at the earliest.” Dr Geevar said that the app will have facility for risk calculation for heart attack by answering a questionnaire. The app will also have BMI indications, too.
