First Aid Emergency & Home App, a comprehensive first aid pocket guide

Many people who found themselves in an emergency situation would either panic or stand aside not being sure about what to do and how to help. Some of them may have had first-aid training, but emergencies don't happen every day, so recollecting memories on how to respond in such situations could be hard with some sort of guide, even for those who have advanced knowledge.

Everything would be much easier if such guide is available at our disposal any time we want. Fortunately, mobile phones make that possible. People don't go anywhere without their phone, and those phones are usually stacked with various apps. 

Having a first aid guide installed among those apps is one of the most important things for anyone who owns a smartphone, because we never know when we could find ourselves in emergency situation. When that happens, it's better to be prepared.

One of the first aid emergency apps we already reviewed on SteadyHealth is Duke CPR app, a life-saving guide that educates people about compression-only CPR primarily for treating sudden cardiac arrest.

But there are many other emergencies, such as traumas, choking, poisoning, burns or fractures, which also require immediate reaction.
First Aid Home & Emergency app by AR Medical covers all these emergencies by providing the current and concise first aid guidelines to both non-educated individuals and trained personnel.

Upon starting the app it will greet you with license agreement screen and notification about the database update. Be sure to use the Wi-Fi to avoid any download costs. Database update doesn't take long, and after downloading the current guidelines database you'd be taken to the main screen.

It is simply designed and divided into three tabs/screens, but honestly I didn't notice them at first, because of the color scheme too similar to the background that doesn't make them prominent. These three tabs are Quick Links, Features and Bookmarks. You can either tap on them or swipe the screen to navigate through the tabs.

'Quick links' tab is practically the app's main screen featuring 12 icons, most of them opening to the instructions on how to handle various emergency scenarios like choking, CPR, fractures, and poisonings among others. 

Beside first aid instructions, here you can also add medical alert card, with your name, address, phone of the relative that should be contacted in case of emergency, and the type of your medical alert.

Upon tapping on Atlas icon, you'd see that First Aid Home & Emergency app also features a symptom checker. Users can tap on virtual human body and check various conditions. Some parts are still under development tho, such as head, but you can still check other symptoms, like abdominal or chest pain, limb fractures, etc.

But some results are not clear, for example those for the chest pain that are listed with the letter and different color beside each (blue C, green T, red E, etc.) that probably indicate the emergency level, but I'm not sure how because they're not explained.

Also, I'm not sure that symptom checker is necessary after all, because the main purpose of this app is to provide first aid instructions for various emergencies.

These instructions really stand out. They're straightforward and concise, focusing on basic steps depending on the emergency type.

For example, you'd get different CPR instructions for adults, infants or children, or choking instructions for responsive or unresponsive adults, or adults who are obese or pregnant. Car accident instructions are given based on the patient's position, or the availability of the equipment.

The app also covers for different types of poisoning, allergies, fractures with detailed step by step instructions.

Besides textual content, most of these instructions include images, animations, and audio instructions narrated by the app's voice synthesizer. Some of the instructions also include videos explaining particular steps, but unfortunately they didn't work. I'm not sure if that's the app's fault, or they simply don't work on the Android version I've used for test (4.4.4.), or if there was a problem with my device.

These instructions are aimed more at trained medical personnel, but they're clear enough so the individuals who are not trained to respond in emergency situations can find them useful too.

Features tab includes several other options, such as local contacts and emergency services, which both use your location, or list the default institutions instead. Here you can also set up or edit your profile, read more about the app and its developers, get support, or visit 'Do You Know' section and test your knowledge about various emergency situations. 

Here you'll also find the list of lab values, from complete blood biochemistry to urine sediment, which is useful if you use the app as a healthcare professional.

Most of the instructions are referenced, but they do not link to the resource materials. They also contain health hotlines, allowing users to call the emergency at the touch of the finger.

After the first launch, the AR First Aid Emergency & Home app will warn you that it requires fast processor and more than 1000 MB of RAM memory. 

At first, I thought that's an unrealistic requirement because most recent phones still operate with the less than 1GB of RAM available. But the app actually did show strange behavior, such as slow performance or freezing. This is serious issue that should be addressed in future updates.

Nevertheless, the AR First Aid Emergency & Home app provides plenty of information on how to deal with emergency scenarios, and that, coupled with simple design and easy-to-use interface, makes it a definite first aid resource.

Benefit: Content of the app is aimed more at trained medical personnel, but the untrained individuals will find it useful too.