App shows locations of AEDs

MARENGO — A free cellphone app shows phone users where automated external defibrillators are located.

Adam Rabe, Iowa County Emergency Management Services manager, introduced Iowa County Supervisors to Pulse Point last week.

The app shows yellow, heart-shaped icons where AEDs are located on a map of any location in the country. Touching an icon will give a photo and description of the location so people in need of the devices can find the closest AEDs quickly.

Private organizations, such as schools and churches, can add their AEDs to the map as well, though they won’t show up until EMS or Public Health approve them, said Rabe.

The app will also allow EMS to track expiration dates for AED pads and batteries and will notify the owner/responsibility party when those expire, Rabe said.

“We wanted to keep track of the county ones,” Rabe told county supervisors. “Those are the ones EMS is responsible for.”

But the app will allow EMS — and the public — to see all of the AEDs available.

“We’re trying to put them on the map so people know where they’re at,” Rabe said.

The PulsePoint app currently shows five AEDs in Marengo — at Gateway park, Marengo City Park, Marengo Public Library, Iowa County Courthouse Annex and Iowa County Courthouse.

In Williamsburg, the app shows AEDs at Harvest Baptist Church, Hills Bank, Williamsburg City Park, St. Mary Catholic Church and the Catholic church’s Memorial Center and two at the Recreation Center complex.

The map shows seven in Amana, one in Homestead, one in North English, one in Victor and two pending at Lake Iowa Park.

Many of the AEDs in Iowa County were purchased in 2024 with a Public Health Emergency Preparedness Grant awarded to the Iowa County Health Department and Iowa County Emergency Managment.