How the AED Locator app works - to locate the nearest defibrillator

Just a click on our mobile device can save a life! A valuable app developed by the Ionian University Informatics Department is now in operation and was presented at a press conference on Thursday by its creators - Alexandros Rigas and Dimitris Pramateftakis along with the supervising professor Yiannis Karydis, the Head of the Informatics Department Manos Maggos and Thomas Bandas from the Ambulance Service (EKAB) who assisted with his experience.

The Ionian University app is the first of its kind in Greece and in the first stage applies to the network of defibrillators in Corfu but has the potential to connect to the central EKAB and include all the other networks in Greece.



Using Google Maps, it allows the user to locate the nearest defibrillator when needed. When it will be needed cannot be foreseen and so an app like this can be critical in the possible saving of a life.

The AED Locator is available free on Play Store and provides the following for Android smartphones:

- Defibrillators are stored in a database
- The stored defibrillators are presented on the ecosystem
- The quickest route is calculated from the smartphone location to the nearest defibrillator.



The Android smartphone application includes an interactive map.

It maintains information such as titles, descriptive text, geographical locations, patch end-dates and when the battery was last changed as well as photos of the defibrillator and its location relative to other landmarks plus a broad description in the backend of YouTube.

The team that developed the app:

- Alexandros Rigas, Informatics Department student
- Dimitris Pramateftakis, Informatics Department student
- Thomas Bandas, Ambulance Service (EKAB) paramedic
- Ioannis Karydis, Supervising Professor
- Markos Avlonitis, Assistant Professor, Head of CMODLab

Initially the app is only available on Android but the team is working on extending its application to iphones.