Whether looking for quick advice on dealing with medical emergencies, severe weather or just a place to make a charitable donation, First Aid by American Red Cross is as thorough as a medical app could be. The amount of information available is staggering, but it’s never presented in a way that speaks over users’ heads or feels too layered to mentally unpack.
Using First Aid is actually quite an easy experience. The app is separated into a few tabs – the first, titled “Learn,” features general information on maladies like bleeding, head injuries, choking and more. The second tab, “Prepare,” covers emergency preparedness for weather events like flooding, or issues like a flu pandemic or a power outage.
The third tab, “Emergency,” is a medical emergency how-to guide, providing instructions on how to help someone who is having an asthma attack, choking, suffering from poisoning or heat stroke, among other things. First Aid’s step-by-step instructions are accompanied by helpful videos and often a link to dial 911 right from the app.
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As if that wasn’t enough, there’s a testing section on the app where users can check their knowledge of first aid maneuvers in a variety of subjects. When a test is completed, the user earns a badge commemorating the achievement. The testing is even more interesting than it has any right to be. Rather than sticking to true/false or multiple choice questions, the user is sometimes tasked with pointing out a specific point on an injured limb or other variations on that rather unique method of questioning.
While there are perhaps better places to grab extremely detailed, scientifically written descriptions of certain injuries or medical emergencies, First Aid by American Red Cross does a fantastic job of breaking down complex emergencies into easy to understand terminology so nearly anyone could potentially save a life. This is the sort of app you’d want front and center in a real first aid kit.
