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Operations & systems
Smart first-responder alerting vs fixed-radius alerts in OHCA
Smart Alerting in Smartphone‐Based First Responder Systems and Arrival Before Emergency Medical Services:The ALARM Randomized Clinical Trial
Journal of the American Heart Association · 2026-11-07 · Added 9 November 2026
A three-arm German RCT across 823 activations found smartphone smart-alerting got community first responders to OHCA before EMS in 58% of missions — better than a 600 m fixed radius (31%) but no better than a 2500 m radius (57%).
- Study type
- RCT
- Design
- Prospective randomised three-arm trial
- Participants
- 823 activations, 1482 dispatched community first responders
- Main finding
- CFR arrived before EMS in 58% (smart alerting), 57% (2500 m) and 31% (600 m); smart alerting vs 600 m risk difference +26.8% (95% CI 18.6–34.4), vs 2500 m +1.2% (95% CI −7.0 to +9.3, p=0.80)
- Caveat
- No advantage over simply widening the alert radius, response rates were lower with the larger radius, and patient outcomes were not measured
- Bottom line
- Hypothesis-generating
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). Community first-responder alerting already runs in several Australian systems; the radius-versus-estimated-travel-time question transfers directly, though German dispatch geography and responder density differ.
Learning goal
Understand how community first responder alerting systems influence arrival before EMS in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
More
- Topic: Operations & systems
- Daily scan: 9 November 2026
- Podcast: Paramedic Papers Daily, 9 November 2026
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