TrygFonden's “Citizen Responder” Initiative Increases Cardiac Arrest Survival

TrygFonden’s primary purpose is to increase security in Denmark within the core areas of safety, health, and welfare. They're one of the top five organizations dedicated to making Denmark a safer place to live, and their mission is to inspire everyone in Denmark to take responsibility for their own safety as well as that of others.

One initiative for these aims is the TrygFonden “Citizen responder” initiative with the ambition to increase the number of people in DK surviving an Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA). Valtech is proud to have been involved with such an important project in ensuring the health of Denmark citizens and visitors.

Each year, around 5,400 people in Denmark suffer from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). In 2001, less than 4% of these people survived. By 2019, this had increased to 16%, helped by the fact that 79% of people who witnessed a cardiac arrest acted and helped.

TrygFonden's ambition is to increase this to 85%, meaning that even more people living in Denmark will have to learn about CPR, the use of AEDs, and sign-up as Citizen Responders (also called HeartRunners).

To support this mission TrygFonden created a digital eco-system that enables people to learn and access more knowledge on CPR and the use and placement of AEDs. The system also allows people to engage as HeartRunners, a volunteer network where Runners will be called out to support with CPR or to retrieve an AED when a cardiac arrest happens within a five-kilometer radius of their position.

With the decision to increase the number of AEDs outside of hospitals, Denmark set the stage for the eco-system TrygFonden is building. The backbone of this eco-system is the AED Network, where the placement of AEDs is registered and made accessible to a HeartRunner app and other supporting applications.

Since 2011, Valtech has been part of this mission by building the data infrastructure that feeds the AED Network and the HeartRunner App. We also created the HeartRunner website and associated bespoke applications and automation flows to support making even more AEDs part of the network and accessible to the HeartRunner initiative.

Valtech is working closely with TrygFonden to continuously optimize all digital touchpoints around the AEDs to make it easier for users to register their own defibrillators to make them visible in the map function and for the HeartRunner initiative. Everyone who might have a need for it can get the knowledge of how to perform CPR, and how to easily find and use an AED right in the palm of their hands. And the people of Denmark are using the app to save lives!

There are more than 20,000 defibrillators / AEDs registered in Denmark, and since 2017 more than 120,000 people have signed up as HeartRunners. For the websites alone, we see a steady increase in performance both in terms of user engagement and sign-ups to both the AED network and the HeartRunner initiatives and an increase in efficiency in managing the AED network due to more automated workflows.

Together with TrygFonden, Valtech continues this journey to develop new and better user experiences for both HeartRunners and the AED network as well as a secure and reliable infrastructure that brings us even closer to the overall ambition for TrygFonden Citizen Responder initiative.