New smartphone app to help cardiac arrest victims

• Japanese researchers have developed a new smartphone app that alerts rescuers with lifesaving AEDs when an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest occurs nearby.
• The earlier bystanders can deliver shocks with an automated external defibrillator (AED) to people who have cardiac arrest outside the hospital, the better their chances are for survival.
• Researchers from Kyoto University in Japan developed the app, called AED-SOS, which signals potential co-rescuers in communities when an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest occurs. Co-rescuers then deliver the needed AEDs to the scene.