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Introduction: Every year 40,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) occur in Canada. Only 1 in 10 survive. Early bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation can triple odds of survival. PulsePoint is a mobile device application designed to crowdsource bystander CPR and public access defibrillation for victims of OHCA. Kingston, Ontario was the first Canadian city to launch PulsePoint. The objective of this project was to determine feasibility of PulsePoint implementation in a Canadian setting and to describe system performance. Methods: This was a descriptive observational study. We included all 9-1-1 incidents involving PulsePoint system activation in Kingston, Ontario and all confirmed, public location OHCAs assessed by local emergency medical services (EMS) between March 23, 2015 to January 23, 2017. By using time and location data from PulsePoint system alert notifications, we attempted to link each PulsePoint activation to de-identified ambulance call records. Results: Between March 23, 2015 to January 23, 2017, there were 258 PulsePoint system activations in Kingston and a total of 32 cases of confirmed OHCAs. Only 58 (22%) of PulsePoint activations could be linked to EMS records with high confidence. Of these linked cases, 10 were confirmed OHCAs, reflecting 17% (10/58) of all linked PulsePoint activations and 31% (10/32) of all confirmed OHCAs. Of the remaining 48 cases that triggered PulsePoint activation numerous final paramedic problem codes were assigned of which 14% (8/58) were deemed alcohol intoxication, 10% (6/58) were active seizures, 7% (4/58) were behavioural/psychiatric events, among others. 10 incidents (17%) that triggered PulsePoint activation did not have an assigned final paramedic problem code. Conclusion: Implementation of PulsePoint is feasible in Canadian communities. Improved capabilities for linking with local EMS data will improve data capture, program monitoring capacity, and opportunity for research. The impact of PulsePoint on clinical outcomes remains uncertain and should be determined in future research.
