New software will help emergency services to save lives, says developer

A VOLUNTEER in one of the Irish Coastguard’s cliff rescue teams has developed a software solution to help emergency rescue services make better decisions that might save lives. Robin Blandford estimates that there are 50,000 global rescue organisations that could benefit from his software, Decisions For Heroes, which launched this week.

What began as a project to gather data and better inform the work of his own rescue team in Howth turned into a commercial venture after Mr Blandford put an early version of the software on the web and invited rescue service groups to test it out.

Teams from five countries, including rescuers who work for sheriffs’ departments in the US, gave their feedback and shaped the launch version of the software.

When he saw the level of interest, Mr Blandford decided to leave his job in technology development at Reuters and set up his own company, ByteSurgery.

A graduate in digital media and engineering from DCU, Mr Blandford is developing his business with the help of the Dublin Institute of Technology’s Hothouse Venture Programme and has been funded by Enterprise Ireland through its Commercialisation of Research and Development grant.

Decisions For Heroes is aimed at a wide range of rescue services, from fire brigades to ski patrols, and provides a level of reporting that can dramatically improve the efficiency of rescue teams.

“After four months of collecting data for my own team in Howth, I could see trends and patterns emerge and I knew there was a business in it,” said Mr Blandford. He claims that it is the first commercially available application specifically for rescue services.

Decisions For Heroes is web-based and sold on subscription, starting at €40 per month per team.

After each incident, team members log in and enter data into the software, everything from details of the rescue personnel involved to weather conditions and the time of day. The data provides the basis for wide-ranging reports which can be retrieved in a number of ways, using graphs and analytical charting that can be exported as PDF documents.

“Very quickly you can identify ‘spikes’ when people are most likely go missing or get into trouble,” said Mr Blandford. “This informs the rescue services on when they will need people on the ground and the kind of skill sets that will typically be called on. It is no exaggeration to say that it is data that could potentially save somebody’s life.”