Overview

• Emergency medicine leaders propose mandatory inclusion of first responder apps in Germany’s rescue service laws to guarantee consistent early intervention
• Fewer than half of German dispatch centers use smartphone-based volunteer networks, while at least six regional systems operate under differing technical standards
• Since 2019 in Essen, the Mobile Retter app has alerted over 1,000 certified volunteers nearly 1,900 times, with responders arriving on average in 3.5 minutes
• Cardiac arrest patients outside hospitals typically wait nine minutes for an ambulance, but app-triggered volunteers bridge the gap by providing care within three to four minutes
• Experts call for interoperability between existing platforms and integration of police and firefighters into a unified, legally anchored nationwide response framework