//upcoming tech

Good Samaritans andByQRFA

Dr. Joel Newman
What is QRFA?* According to Andrew M. Seamans Article in Reuters entitled CPR Often Leads
By Dr. Joel Newman
To Broken Ribs1 CPR is a violent process that can hurt the patient badly. If this
The Quick Response First Aid system, happens, the patient can try to sue the person who administered the CPR. Good
or QRFA, is set to be a game-changer Samaritan laws, exist to protect the administrator. According to the popular
in the medical assistance field. The dictionary website YourDictionary.com,2 Good Samaritan law is the blanket
system allows people vulnerable to name for a group of laws implemented across jurisdictions that protects those
certain illnesses to add their who give aid to a person in peril. As detailed in this post by James H. Moss J.
conditions to a coded image called a D3, every state has implemented some kind of Good Samaritan law. However,
not all Good Samaritan laws are the same. According to a post by Le Trinh, an
QR code. A first responder without
Attorney writing for the FindLaw Law Blog4, in some states, one has to be a
medical knowledge can then scan
medical professional in order to receive these legal protections. QRFA can help
that image with an app in order to
with this problem. Using QRFA, a person at risk can add that they consent to
receive step by step instructions on
having CPR done by adding it to their QR code. According to Michael Newman
how to treat said vulnerable person.
Esq., an attorney at law5, this kind of waiver could provide a potential defense in
*-NOTE: this is not an article, is just an explanation of our project. a court of law. According to Reducing Barriers for Implementation of Bystander-
Initiated Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: A Scientific Statement From the
American Heart Association for Healthcare Providers, Policymakers, and Com-
munity Leaders Regarding the Effectiveness of Cardiopulmonary Resuscita-
tion6, a scientific article about how to raise rates bystander initiated CPR, a pos-
sible reason for low rates of bystander initiated CPR is that some bystanders
fear legal liability. This means that giving bystanders the assurance that they
have a very low chance of being sued and an even lower chance of losing we
can eliminate a common barrier that prevents bystanders from helping in
many cases.
1:http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cpr-often-leads-to-broken-ribs-idUSBRE8721IF20120803
2:http://www.yourdictionary.com/good-samaritan-law
3:https://recreation-law.com/2014/05/28/good-samaritan-laws-by-state/
4:http://blogs.findlaw.com/injured/2015/07/if-cpr-causes-broken-ribs-can-you-sue.html
5:Information comes from a personal interview with Michael. His credentials are Michael A.S. Newman, Esq., Call State Bar #205299.
6:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5656746_Reducing_Barriers_for_Implementation_of_Bystander-
Initiated_Cardiopulmonary_Resuscitation_A_Scientific_Statement_From_the_American_Heart_Association_for_Healthcare_Providers_Policymakers_and_Com
munity

The logo of the QRFA system. It depicts a red cross

inside a QR code.

Why we need QRFA By Dr. Jennifer Ledezma

Medical Identification (ID) is jewelry that saves lives by containing a wide variety of ailments, medications, and
emergency contacts listed on it. There are conditions that could warrant the need for medical ID including: allergies,
diabetes, blood disorders, hypertension, kidney failure, anemia, Tourette syndrome, cardiac problems, hearing or visual
impairments, and epilepsy or seizure disorders1. These diseases come with a wide variety of symptoms and effects that,
when not quickly treated can cause long lasting effects. Dr. Rishi Sikka, an emergency medical physician with Advocate
Medical Groups, states that medical ID, an emblem or tag worn on the user bearing the message of medical conditions
that might require immediate attention, reduces medical treatment errors, negative effects of care that can be harmful to
the patient including incomplete treatment or diagnosis, and helps health professionals diagnose a patients condition
quickly2. American Medical ID surveyed emergency medical professionals and learned that more than 95% of
respondents look for some sort of medical ID during emergencies and more than 75% look for medical ID upon assessing a
patient3. As St. John Ambulances chief executive Sue Killen states, approximately 140,000 people die every year in
situations where their lives could have been saved if somebody had known first aid 4. Quick Response First Aid could save
many lives by providing immediate medical information about victims conditions to bystanders. Having step-by-step
instructions on how to stabilize patients (with processes such as cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, controlling bleeding
with direct pressure, and establishing responsiveness, as stated by https://www.grainger.com/content/qt-safety-basic-
first-aidprocedures-207)5 before medical professionals arrive will significantly reduce the number of deaths.
1:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_identification_tag
2:https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/apr/12/first-aid-skills-deaths
3:https://www.americanmedical-id.com/medical-ids-in-emergencies/
4:https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/sep/17/first-aid-deaths-tv-campaign
5:https://www.grainger.com/content/qt-safety-basic-first-aidprocedures-207
 Quick Response First Aid
The Bystander Effect and QRFA By Dr. James Rodriguez

The Bystander Effect is the theory that bystanders to help victims in need by
states the more people in a group, the less giving them the knowledge needed to
inclined the bystander feels to help. Philip assist a victim. In a famous experiment
Zimbardo, psychologist and professor at composed in 1968 by John Darley and Bibb
Stanford University, states in his article Latane, the professors had two students
entitled The Bystander Effect that this converse in private cubicles, while one of
occurs when the groups majority privately students would suddenly have a seizure.
believes one idea and mistakenly assumes When the other student believed that they
that most others believe the opposite, were alone with the victim, they attempted
known as pluralistic ignorance. For to help the victim 85% of the time, but
example, if every bystander in a group sees when the other student believed they were
a victim, but assumes that another person not alone, only 31% of the
in the group will call emergency services, subjects attempted to help.
they end up disassociating themselves With QRFA bystanders can An example of a graphic that
from the situation resulting in no call for lead active roles in assisting could be used by the QRFA app to
help sent out. Quick Response First Aid victims.
(QRFA) will change this by encouraging all 1:https://goo.gl/v4T2dG
2:https://goo.gl/CBEZjO
teach CPR.

The Consequences of Bystander Inadequacy QRFA & Privacy

By Dr. Amit Rehan By Dr. Indya Searchwell
What a bystander does in a true medical emergency can mean the 67 percent of people are concerned with the privacy of
difference between life or death for the victim. While it's common their medical records, according to a survey conducted
knowledge to call emergency operators in a life threatening situation, in 2005 by www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov1. However, in the
the period before first responders arrive at the scene is often the most event of a medical emergency such as a seizure, an
volatile. During this period the victim needs to be stabilized and kept allergic reaction, or a cardiac arrest, a bystander would
safe, but fewer and fewer people are willing to take the time and effort need access to the victims medical records. There are
to learn basic life saving first aid procedures. As of 2012, statistics bracelets on the market that allow people to engrave
from "Lack of first aid skills endangers up to 150,000 lives." on https:// custom medical information onto them. Because the
www.theguardian.com/society/2010/apr/12/first-aid-skills-deaths information that can be stored on a bracelet is limited,
show that less than one-fifth of the general public would attempt to people who suffer from health problems may not be
render first aid to an injured victim. The rest of the population would able to receive help in an adequate amount of time. In
either do nothing or call emergency services and hope for the best. It order for these bracelets to be effective, sensitive medi-
is estimated that over 140,000 people die each year because proper cal and personal information must be openly engraved,
first aid was not delivered to them. These preventable deaths occurred and if one of these bracelets is lost, the owners privacy
because the bystanders did not have the basic skills and knowledge is at risk. Apps exist that allow bystanders to scan
needed to assist the victims in their time of need. For example, if a someones custom QR code (a machine-readable code)
victim was unresponsive due to a sudden stoppage of the heart known in an emergency and have access to their medical info.
as a cardiac arrest, there is a 70% chance that a passing bystander In a medical emergency, though, most bystanders do
would not know how to perform CPR (Immediate cardiopulmonary not know what to do with this information, as shown in
resuscitation), a series of rapid chest compressions used to help a vic- a poll by the First Aid Association which found that
tim in the event of a sudden cessation of the heart, in order to help the 77% either didnt know how to administer cardiopulmo-
victim as stated in CPR Statistics."on http://www.heart.org/ nary resuscitation (CPR), or were unsure of how to do it.
HEARTORG/CPRAndECC/Whatis%20CPR/CPRFactsandStats/CPR- (www.nursingtimes.net)2 Lack of oxygen in the brain
Statistics_UCM_307542_Article.jsp. The one thing the bystanders causes permanent brain damage in as little as four
could have used to help the patient was the information on how to minutes, and after another four to six minutes it results
treat and support the patient which would be provided by the QRFA in increased brain damage, coma, and death. The QRFA
app. This app would show the bystander a comprehensible sequence App allows people who suffer from health complica-
of instructions to stabilize the victim until further help arrives. Armed tions to share only as much medical information as
with this knowledge, bystanders would gain an immense role in as- they are comfortable with while keeping this infor-
sisting victims as compared to the present where bystanders they can mation safe and ensuring that in the case of an emer-
only feel helplessness while watching a victim dying a needless gency, proper medical care can be given by any by-
death. stander with the use of simple step by step instruc-
tions.
1:NA, "Lack of first aid skills endangers up to 150,000 lives." The Guardian. , 12 Apr. 2012. Web. https://
www.theguardian.com/society/2010/apr/12/first-aid-skills-deaths. Accessed 15 Mar. 2017.
2:NA, CPR Statistics." HEARTORG. , 3 Sept. 2014. Web. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/CPRAndECC/Whatis%20CPR/ 1:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK9579/
CPRFactsandStats/CPR-Statistics_UCM_307542_Article.jsp. Accessed 15 Mar. 2017. 2:https://www.nursingtimes.net/survey-reveals-alarming-gap-in-emergency-first-aid-
knowledge/1980431.article