A new app to help members of the public save lives in the event of a terrorist attack has been launched by two leading clinicians based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.

citizenAID – available now to download for free – gives a step-by-step guide to help people help each other with improvised life-saving treatment before emergency services arrive at the scene of a major incident.

It uses knowledge gained by military and civilian medics who have created systems in use nationally and internationally to treat multiple casualties in both civilian and military environments.

Sir Keith Porter, Professor of Clinical Traumatology at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (which runs the QEHB) and Brigadier Tim Hodgetts CBE, Medical Director of the Defence Medical Services, are co-authors of citizenAID, along with Andrew Thurgood, Consultant Nurse in Pre-Hospital Care & Senior Advanced Clinical Practitioner (Emergency Medicine) and Colonel Peter Mahoney CBE TD QHS, Immediate past Defence Professor of Anaesthesia and Critical Care.

Their combined experience demonstrates that immediate action by bystanders can save lives following serious injury from blast or gunshot. This experience is used within the app and corresponding paper Pocket Guide.

Wide cross-government consultation has taken place to ensure that citizenAID complements existing emergency service procedures and is supported by key stakeholders. citizenAID specifically reinforces the national ‘Run, Hide, Tell’ message to create ‘Run, Hide, Tell, Treat’. citizenAID is also supported by the National Counter Terrorism Security Office and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Brig Hodgetts said: “We believe citizenAID can realistically prevent avoidable deaths in mass casualty events through decisive, pre-determined actions and life-saving interventions, using military knowledge from recent campaigns to improve wider civilian healthcare outcomes.”

Prof Porter added: “Events in Europe in the past year have shown there is a realistic threat to public safety in the UK from shooting, stabbing and bombing incidents. The app demonstrates what the public can do when caught up in deliberate incidents causing multiple casualties.”

The app is available via the App Store on iOS and the Play Store on Android devices.

citizenAID can be followed on Twitter (@thecitizenaid) and Facebook (thecitizenaid).