Exhibitor News

Viper: The Chilean software that speeds up the work of firefighters and ambulances to attend emergencies

In the event of an accident or fire alert, speed of response is essential for emergency institutions. That is why some of them have integrated a computer-assisted dispatch system created by the Chilean scale up Viper, which through its mass notification program has managed to reduce the dispatch times of ambulances and fire trucks, saving the lives of hundreds of people.

Publicada: Monday 9 de September del 2024
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In the event of a car accident, a fire, a fall from a height or any other vital emergency, it is most likely that someone will call the fire department by dialing 132 or the ambulance by dialing 131. As soon as the call is generated, time becomes crucial, because this response capacity can make the difference between life and death. A reality that was well understood by the creators of Viper, a Computer-aided Dispatch (CAD) system that allows incident management, fully customizable and adaptable to any type of organization that delivers emergency mass notifications (EMNS; Emmergency Mass Notification System), making it possible to quickly and efficiently handle various situations. Scenarios as different as a fire, a natural disaster or an accident can be efficiently addressed through this innovative platform. With a simple interface, similar to a digital keypad, immediate response to any emergency is triggered with just a few clicks. “In the past, everything used to be paper-based and paper-based. You had to enter the corresponding emergency data on a computer and then print it to dispatch it to a cell phone. With Viper, this is done directly at the reception of the call, so that the mobile is dispatched instantly,” says Sebastián Martínez, nurse regulator of the ambulance center of the Municipality of Pudahuel. He also points out that thanks to this tool they can obtain statistical data with no error bias and affirms that the primary and secondary transfers unit is performing close to a thousand services a year. Information that they did not have at hand before and even less on line, and that today it is only a matter of applying filters to obtain it. Beginnings with firefighters  Created ten years ago by Camilo Salazar and Exequiel Gallardo, Viper started as a support for the Fire Companies, with the objective of providing this institution with a more agile and coordinated response to the different emergencies they face on a daily basis. It is an application that transforms a smartphone into a beeper (the old pagers) that sends mass notifications with a specialized design and a differentiating tone. It is currently used by firefighters in the main regional capitals of the country, among which are Antofagasta and Concepción, including an important part of the Metropolitan Region. “Every time an alarm is managed each firefighter receives a notification to his phone, indicating the place and description of the emergency, if it is a fire it throws the taps near the incident, which has facilitated the work”, explains Alfonso Olivera, Third Commander of the Antofagasta Fire Department, who a year ago decided to change the system they had been using for more than a decade for this technology. “We have modernized our work, we cannot stay with the bell or the siren that sounded years ago,” he adds. He also stresses that the main change was the accuracy of the dispatches. “The previous system was quite erratic in giving the location. For us, this saves time, because it allows us to dispatch the units that are really closest to us and not lose valuable minutes in reaching the emergency. A similar experience has been had by the Concepción Fire Department, which implemented Viper in its facilities at the beginning of 2022. Its Commander, Cristián Cárdenas, is emphatic in affirming that this platform has allowed them to save at least two minutes in response times. “In the past, when dispatching, we had to wait for confirmation from the assigned company to know if they had enough personnel to cover the emergency, and if they did not, we had to generate another dispatch and wait again for the response. Today this information is on line, the dispatch center knows exactly how many firefighters there are in each company and now if any company has no personnel it is not dispatched, even if it is the closest to the emergency”, explains Cárdenas. In addition, this technology has allowed them to maintain fleet control in real time, “which was a great advantage during the summer forest fires, where the Concepción Fire Department was the only one that knew exactly where its trucks were working thanks to VIPER GO’s GPS monitoring. This is essential information when working in open spaces and when the radio signal is not stable due to the geography of the terrain”, says the commander. Another relevant point provided by this tool and highlighted by both Cárdenas and Martínez is that access to information, figures and statistics online, which they previously had to look for in books or filing cabinets, has given them the possibility of better managing resources, which has had a positive impact on the operation of both the Fire Department and the ambulance station. During their trajectory, Viper’s founders have won phase 1 and 2 of CORFO’s SSAF project. In addition, they developed tools such as VIPER CREW, VIPER ONE, VIPER GO and VIPER MASS, solutions used by different organizations nationwide. “The great advantage is how we can integrate the software to the particular needs of each institution, whether health, public agencies, educational establishments, shopping malls or others. Our goal is that everyone has a protocolized management of emergencies through the system of mass notifications that optimize resources and provide operational continuity,” concludes Camilo Salazar, COO & Co-Founder of Viper.

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