Sign up to GoodSAM - the global alert network saving lives and averting brain injury
“To save a life, I tried and can. Thank you, thank you, GoodSAM-I-am!”- the global alert network saving lives and averting brain injury.
Some critics may view the character Sam-I-am in Dr Seuss’s best-selling children’s book, Green Eggs and Ham, as pushy.
A bit ‘in your face’, perhaps, as he tried to convince the unnamed narrator to eat the unusual plate of food.
But the assertion is good sometimes.
Like declaring the GoodSAM digital platform to be a proven lifesaver – and the push to get more volunteer responders to sign up to the global network. (Neuro occupational therapists take note!)
“You may like it. You will see.” (Seuss again.)
Here or there
So how is GoodSAM saving lives? Its co-founder, air ambulance doctor and Imperial College consultant neurosurgeon Professor Mark Wilson explained at a recent brain injury innovations conference. [1]
“It was originally set up as an alerting and dispatching platform through our work with the air ambulance,” he said.
“What we noticed was that a number of our trauma patients would get a head injury and would stop breathing - a phenomenon called impact brain apnoea. [2]
“It’s a phenomenon that some doctors and paramedics see more than others; those who are on the scene very quickly, within a minute or two.
What we wanted to do was recruit people nearby who could provide basic life support for head-injured patients while waiting for the air ambulance. 
He added, “That’s where the GoodSAM principle came from.”
The platform, and its instant on-scene video system, has now been broadened to aid other sectors, such as the police and fire services, and, during the covid pandemic, to help isolating vulnerable people.
GoodSAM Medical, however, is where anyone linked to the brain injury community – with or without first aid training – can sign up as a volunteer community first responder.
And it’s where any member of the public with a loved one at risk can sign up to the GoodSAM Alerter – which triggers the system by dialling 999.
GoodSAM’s life-saving features include:
- Instant Help – this enables emergency dispatchers to instantly locate callers and open their smartphone cameras to record the scene.
- One-way video – records ongoing events.
- Two-way/multi-way video – enables up to 250 people, including specialists, to join a call and share views.
- Instant Vital Signs – an artificial intelligence system can measure pulse rate through the video.
- RTMP Feeds - bodycams, drones, Go-Pros, and CCTV cameras can all link up.
- Home monitoring to maintain care in a ‘virtual ward’ at home.
And apart from saving lives, GoodSAM also saves vital resources for some of its signatories, as a recent study of its video impact on the North West Ambulance Service showed:
- Quicker outcomes in 93% of calls.
- 96% of dispatchers felt more confident making clinical decisions.
- 24% of calls were downgraded.
- 17% of calls were upgraded.
- Average call times dropped from 15 minutes to 6 minutes.
So good, you see!
So far, during the pandemic, around 800,000 people have signed up through GoodSAM, the Royal Voluntary Service and the British Red Cross as NHS Volunteer Responders [3] to provide social support, medical and grocery deliveries and transport.
In the past year alone, its medically qualified responders helped, on average, one cardiac arrest victim every 3 minutes.
But volunteers are still needed:
- As first aiders.
- As telephone companions.
- To collect and deliver supplies.
- To transport patients.
The platform is also home to the world’s largest registry of fixed and mobile automated external defibrillators (AEDs) – portable devices used to shock the heart into restarting after cardiac arrest.
Thanks to volunteers uploading details of AEDs in their area or possession, it’s now possible at the touch of a button to find the closest one in an emergency in many areas around the world.
Mark said: “[GoodSAM] is now integrated across the UK and large parts of Australia, New Zealand, the US and other areas of the world.
Many people have survived as a result of this.
More about signing up to GoodSAM here: GoodSAM (goodsamapp.org)
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References
- The Future of Brain Injury in an Innovative World - Brain Injury Group
- Impact brain apnoea - A forgotten cause of the cardiovascular collapse in trauma - PubMed (nih.gov)
- NHS Volunteer Responders