Can an app (“application”) on your cell phone really save a life during a mission trip? It sure can—just ask Dan Woolley with Compassion International.
CNN.com reports that Woolley was buried beneath layers of debris during the recent Haiti earthquake. He survived for 65 hours thanks to his quick thinking and using the instructions he found on his cell phone. Woolley had downloaded the Pocket First Aid & CPR app from the American Heart Association.
We are launching a series of blogs focusing on apps for mission trips (see yesterday’s post for details). Today, it’s on apps for medical issues. What better place to start than with tools that can save lives, just like Dan Woolley’s.
If you have led very many mission trips, then you know that eventually someone gets sick or injured during a trip. Knowing how to handle these situations, especially when you are in the middle of “no where,” is critical. Time may be of the essence and you may not have first aid books or other reference materials with you.
That’s where these phone apps come in handy.
Pocket First Aid & CPR features hundreds of illustrated pages dealing with numerous health and medical emergency situations. We really like the fact that it also includes a number of high quality videos showing how to respond to critical situations.
The app allows you to store medical and insurance information about yourself, family or those with whom you are traveling. The price is $3.99.
The popular website WebMD has entered the app world with WebMD Mobile. It also provides first aid and CPR advice, although not to the same level as the American Heart Association’s app.
What is unique is that this app allows you to look up a variety of symptoms (not just life threatening) and find drug or treatment information. It actually lets you select the part of the body that is causing problems in order to learn about potential issues.
Online reviews of the app are mixed, mostly over concerns that their emergency information may not be the most current. Another concern listed was that the app requires live data access for some of its functions, which certainly would be an issue if you are in a place where wi-fi or cell coverage were not available. Even with these limitations, this is still one app to consider and it’s free.
Both WebMD Mobile and Pocket First Aid & CPR are available for the iPhone.
We’ve not seen any comparable apps that work on other phones. If you know of one, please comment and let us know.
Our next blog will focus on apps for money issues while on mission trips.
Stay tuned—there’s an app for that!