I had the great opportunity to get a sneak peek of Chain of Life 2.0 a few weeks ago and several weeks to ponder the impact of it in the San Ramon Valley Community (and beyond for that matter). I was attending some of the afternoon sessions of the Leadership San Ramon Valley “Media Day”. I was present to observe Adriel Hampton‘s talk on Social Media in a political context. I had recommended him and they ended up booking him to be one of the featured speakers.

A Meeting with the Fire Chief

While Adriel was giving his presentation Richard Price, the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District Chief and current president of Leadership San Ramon Valley (Disclosure – the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District is a client) asked me if I could arrange a meeting for us to meet with Adriel to discuss something. That meeting ended up happening later that afternoon. During the meeting I learned what the Chain of Life 2.0 was and got to see the video that is at the end of this blog post. The video is amazing and the implications for open source, gov 2.0 and overall use of location based services of this new application are substantial. Or as Adriel shared in his post:

I felt the world change. – Adriel Hampton

What is Chain of Life 2.0?

The chain of life is the process used to describe the reaction and treatment of victims of a heart attack. The first 10 minutes after a heart attack are crucial. One of the key elements of heart attack survival in the chain of life, is how quickly CPR is initiated. It has a drastic impact on the survivability of a heart attack. That is where this exciting web 2.0 application comes into play. This iPhone (available on Android and other platforms eventually) app is location aware and allows people with CPR expertise to sign up as knowing CPR. The system then notifies anyone close to any heart attack incidents and also advises them where the closest Automated External Defibrillator or AED device is located. Here is a visual of the app in action:

There is a hero in all of us…

The users of this application will be able to get to heart attack victims even ahead of the traditional first responders (The SRVFPD goal is 7 minutes). This will equate to lives being saved that would otherwise be lost. It is hard to quantify the impact that the loss of a loved one has, but it is great to know that this new breed of application will empower individuals to become heroes for heart attack victims in their community.

What does it mean to the San Ramon Valley Community?

We can be very proud that perhaps the most significant location aware application was born here. We will be empowered to help our neighbors in ways we never thought possible as the first market in the world to have it. Imagine the feeling that a heart attack victim’s family will have knowing that an initiative born in the San Ramon Valley saved their loved ones life.  It is worth mentioning that a Foundation is being formed to bring this open source effort to Fire Districts throughout the US. The end result will mean more people will survive heart attacks which is something we can all be thankful for.

You might also want to check out the landing page for the latest on the announcement.