A first aid app developed by three students for use in schools across England is now available to download. The life-saving platform – called the First Aid Buddy (FAB) – was devised by students at Ormiston Sudbury Academy in Suffolk.
Their idea came about after Gaia Technologies plc and Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT) ran an app development competition between students across its 27 secondary schools, with the best entry turned into an app by the education technology company.
FAB is the brainchild of Year 11 students Gemma Marsh, Ned Nettleton and Alfie Sagon. It is designed to be a pocket first aid assistant for children, which demonstrates basic triage principles for all minor injuries in a simple, concise and easy to use format.
It also caters for the inclusion of an emergency number which will alert the parent or guardian of a child at the same time as presenting a first stage treatment synopsis. The app has a bright colourful interface, meaning it is easy to locate on a phone in an emergency.
Year 11 student Gemma Marsh, who was part of the app-designing team, said: “I’ve been doing life-saving at my local swimming pool for the last eight years and during that time, I have learnt basic first aid to be able to deal with incidents like choking, resuscitation and how to deal with different types of casualties.
“I feel it is better for young people to be prepared and know about these things as they can often happen to children and young people.”
Ormiston Sudbury Academy Principal, Caroline Wilson, said: “I am extremely impressed by the app our students produced. They researched rigorously to find a gap in the market of first aid support and supplied an exceptional product to fill that gap.
“They worked hard to perfect the platform, the result being a highly professional tool. We are very proud of their achievement. “
Jon Rashid, from Gaia Technologies, said: “We believed right from the start that this was a well thought through proposal and were happy to provide technical support throughout the process. Hopefully this will be the first of many more such projects.”