Early beginnings: Idea behind Helpfie was inspired by the Boston Marathon rescue efforts back in 2013. A related idea was pitched during an MIT Hacking Medicine competition at WebMD in NYC in 2014. Following additional research, we arrived at key use cases for a lay public (Smart First Aid application) and more advanced protocols for Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and Paramedics (Smart EMS application)
Notable pilots: Partnered with the local ambulance provider for the City of Quincy and the Quincy Fire Department to conduct a crowdsourcing campaign to identify Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in a community of 90,000 residents in the Northeast, USA
Kenya’s offerings: Created a Helpfie offering for Kenya given Kenya’s high mobile phone prevalence, the need for life saving first aid skills among the general public and the demand on Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and Paramedics to master EMS protocols
Kenya’s Emergency Care Strategy: Kenya’s inaugural program that brings together a multi-disciplinary national steering committee to implement an emergency care program, strengthen seamless coordination while also enhancing the delivery of quality emergency care to save lives
Social business: Harnessing the power of technology to save lives by equipping the general public with life saving skills and providing EMTs and paramedics with access to the latest EMS protocols through an annual subscription membership
Core values: Drawing on Helpfie’s core values that include: empathy, compassion, grit, quiet strength, among others, to bring transformation, behavior change and disrupt emergency care by challenging the status quo through use of socially innovative solutions
Future goals: Growing Helpfie’s topic library and Helpfie’s subscriber base in the short term and helping leapfrog emergency care to keep pace with the demands on prehospital care in the long-term
Success indicators: Being part of a movement that reduces pain and suffering by jumping in and taking action especially in those critical moments that matter