At around 19 inches long, 15 inches wide and 16 pounds, the first-aid kit Mobilize Rescue Systems has created is a far cry from the Band-Aid-filled white case in the bottom of your backpack.
Also, unlike the expired disinfectant ointment that’s been sitting in your kit since your Boy Scout days, the New York-based startup’s Comprehensive Rescue System is going to get stuff done.
An iPad-equipped kit that was designed to turn help turn bystanders into lifesavers, the CRS has everything from gauze and tweezers to tourniquets and QuikClot bleeding control dressing.
In order to make the pieces in the kit — which also packs stuff like a 36-inch emergency splint, trauma shears and chest seals — usable for the layman, the iPad in the CRS is loaded with an interactive app that uses an assessment-based algorithm to determine the most dangerous problem first and then provides step-by-step instructions on what to do and what tools to use.
The point of the kit isn’t so bystanders can replace emergency personnel, but simply to let them help a victim who’s suffered a life-threatening injury hold on until qualified help can arrive. To make that job simpler, all equipment is labeled and color coded for easy location and recognition.
“You can bleed to death in three minutes — that’s way faster than you’ll choke to death, so tourniquets, labeled red, go in the bottom left,” Mobilize Rescue head of product development Chris Strattner told Wired.
Said to be potentially as useful as fire extinguishers or sprinkler systems at remote locations, at $2,250, the CRS isn’t as affordable, but there are iPad-less versions for $1,750 and $180.
All of those are admittedly a tall price to pay for something you’ll hopefully never have to use, but it’s nice to see the IoT has some applications outside of turning our fridges into porn hubs.
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