The GoodSAM (Good Samaritan) smartphone app that is saving lives around the world, has now arrived in St John Papua New Guinea. The free mobile app will help St John ambulance control centres locate people in need of urgent medical care.

In an emergency, one of the greatest challenges for St John ambulances is finding the location of a person living in rural parts of a country. Many countries like PNG don’t have formal addresses so the use of GoodSAM is very welcomed as it will help save many lives.

What is GoodSAM?

GoodSAM is a free video streaming app available to everyone. The app is designed for emergency services, it allows members of the public to instantly share their location, as well as what they’re seeing at the scene of an incident via the camera on their mobile phone. It also alerts those trained in CPR to nearby incidents while an ambulance is on its way – this feature is only activated when registered to the app.

How does it work?

The GoodSAM service is initiated by the emergency response call handler sending an SMS text message or email containing a web link, once the person at the scene of an incident opens the link the response call handler can track the callers location and depending on the type of invite sent view the live video footage of the scene. 

Click here to see a demonstration of how the app works.

Read more about St John Papua New Guinea and their work here. 

4 January 2022