This Penn alum's project could save your life

This Penn alum’s project could save your life

Last year, our Hollywood Penn alum doctor appeared on the “Dr. Oz show” and taught us how to save a life after a trauma.

Now today on DT, I want to introduce you to another Penn alum who has been working on an important app with Penn physicians that also can empower you to save lives in those critical moments after someone appears to be suffering from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).

After the jump, learn more about the project and how you can participate for a chance to win monetary prizes and to encourage a good cause.

Please share this article to raise awarenewss and to help save a life!

Eric Stone is a two-time Penn grad, 1999 BA in English Literature and 2007 Wharton MBA in Health Care Management. Since graduating Penn, Eric has worked as an entrepreneur, consultant and health care business professional in Austin, TX, Boston, MA, San Francisco, CA, Brussels, Belgium and most recently in Philadelphia, where he is volunteering as the Co-Director of the MyHeartMap Challenge, a non-profit research initiative created and led by three physician researchers in PENN’s Perelman School of Medicine, Drs. Raina Merchant, David Asch, and Lance Becker..

To start off, the project serves to engage the local Philadelphia population (and eventually the national population, following hte Philadelphia pilot) in crowdsourcing the location of the currently untracked multitude of life-saving Automated External Defibrillator (AED) devices.

You may not be aware, but these smart AED devices can assess if a person is indeed suffering from Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA), and if so, will shock the victim to return the heart to a normal rhythm. Look around your work place and you may notice that you pass by these devices everyday. The brilliance of this project is that most people, including Emergency Medical Services, don’t know where these devices exist in public places around the community. As time is the critical factor in saving a person’s life from SCA, a location-based map of device locations has the potential to save lives in such an emergency situation. Your participation in the contest, scheduled to go live in late fall/winter with the release of the smart phone app, will help to save lives via crowdsourcing critical emergency information!

For all my Philly readers, you can participate in their contest to both win monetary prizes and help raise awareness. All you need to do is download their free app, take photos of these devices seen around the city, tag the location and a few additional pieces of information, and submit either as an individual contestant or member of a team.

How to participate, contest rules, and more in advance of the fall-winter launch of the app and contest, please sign up for updates at www.myheartmap.org or at www.med.upenn.edu/myheartmap

“like” the contest at www.facebook.com/myheartmap

If you are interested in either volunteering, or donating to this social sector, life-saving cause, you can contact [email protected]

More Penn alumni with apps you should check out HERE