MUrgency brings global emergency response mobile app to India

Bengaluru: San Francisco-based technology company MUrgency Inc. on Wednesday introduced United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-backed global emergency response mobile app in India.

The application MUrgency is a cloud-based mobile application which connects people who need emergency response with family and friends, other users of the app and credentialed medical, safety, rescue and assistance professionals as per the situation. It also makes the nearest emergency responder (doctor, nurse, paramedic, ambulance, etc.) available to a person facing an emergency.

The app, which will focus on developing countries, is being launched the MUrgency Inc. in partnership with Business Call to Action at the UNDP, Young Global Leaders at the World Economic Forum, Stanford ChangeLabs, Harvard Asia Center and MIT Global Health, the company said.

Through the platform, the company aims to assist half a million people at the base of the pyramid by the end of 2015.

While MUrgency can send messages with geographical location to a network of friends, neighbours and loved ones when the emergency alert is triggered with the tap on the mobile, it also has a communication platform that includes chat, video, audio and photo messaging.

Except for the MUrgency Responder function, which entails global responder enrollment, validation and onboarding and is done by Ziqitza Health Care Ltd, an emergency ambulance service company operating in India and other developing countries, all other features are available now, the company stated.

The responder function is expected to be launched in Punjab in August and cover other cities by 1 January 2018. All other features are available now, the company stated.

The company has already conducted field testing of the MUrgency model in Punjab, Dubai and Israel. The data collected indicated using the app reduced the response time to less than half of what it took an ambulance in an efficiently run ambulance system to reach the emergency victim. In Israel, the model has brought down the average emergency response time from between 8-12 minutes to 2.54 minutes (over 245,000 incidents in 2014), the company said.

According to the industry estimates, 6.25 billion people worldwide lack access to a reliable emergency response system in case of emergency. Even as rest 0.75 billion people who can obtain reliable response often have to deal with enormous expenses and delays.

“According to WHO estimates, more people die from lack of timely care than from AIDS, TB and malaria combined.To address this situation, MUrgency is developing an emergency response system that is available to anyone with mobile network access,” the company stated.

“It is well known that timely medical assistance is the most critical factor in saving lives. Unfortunately, it is not readily available to 90 percent of world’s population,” said MUrgency’s founder and CEO Shaffi Mather. “Our aim is to make fast emergency medical assistance available through the mobile phone to anyone, anytime, anywhere across the world by 2020 with just one tap on your phone.”