RapidSOS Is Saving Lives, One Call At A Time

It’s no secret that U.S. hospitals have been at or over capacity for some time now. Among the unsung heroes, working tirelessly to ensure our emergency rooms are able to accommodate mass influxes, is a company which has dedicated its software, free of charge, to 911 call centers in hopes of making a lasting change in the industry.

RapidSOS created a platform, eight years in the making, which has assisted medical first responders with over 150 million emergency calls in 2020 alone, averaging 400,000 calls per day. It utilizes mobile phones, vehicle software, sensors, and other data inputs to provide information to emergency responders as they arrive on the scene. This allows people in rural or remote areas to still access medical help with limited signal, and helps medical professionals know everything they need about a patient to provide adequate and expedited care where it’s needed most.

Become a Subscriber

Please purchase a subscription to continue reading this article.

Subscribe Now

With its busiest year yet, RapidSOS has just completed a Series C funding round, bringing in a whopping $85 million in capital. The company will be using this cash infusion to expand their software and accelerate connectivity between patient and practitioner. Currently the services are used by 4,800 call centers in the U.S., covering 92% of the population. Now they have partnered with U.K.-based company MedicAlert in an effort to establish the same level of outreach in this international market.

This software is already creating an immediate impact in many communities. During the Nashville bombing on Christmas Day for instance, when 300 hundred data agencies lost signal in a citywide outage, RapidSOS was able to provide medical data and location information to emergency first responders, compensating for downed agencies on a major scale. The company has linked nearly 350 million devices directly to first responders, and the software comes standard in some big-name products like Apple’s iPhone, through the Medical ID function, and in SiriusXM’s car interfaces.

If this technology continues to expand, the implications are monumental. With faster response times, increased availability of information about patients in need, and the ability to contact emergency services in places with no signal, this software can save countless lives and improve the ease and accessibility of emergency response services.