This project is a community improvement initiative and part of a research study being conducted at the University of Pennsylvania.

The contest is over but its not too late to submit additional AEDs. Click Here!


Thank you to everyone who participated in the MyHeartMap Challenge. This has been a huge success—participants submitted thousands of AED locations previously unknown in Philadelphia. The MyHeartMap Team has been validating these locations to build a database of AEDs in Philadelphia County and Pennsylvania, click here to view our map.

While the contest ended, we still need your help!  We will continue to accept submissions of AED devices to build a nationwide database. View our working map here. Stay tuned for more developments! Join our mailing list or email us at myheartmapchallenge@uphs.upenn.edu

Our Next Challenge...

Design meets public health and you can be the hero! See the gallery of designs, vote, and or submit one of your own! View the Penn Defibrillator Design Challenge

Clues from the contest!







The Device That Saves Lives, But Can Be Hard to Find

November 12, 2012 | By Ron Winslow

If you needed an automated external defibrillator to help a victim of sudden cardiac arrest, chances are you would have trouble finding one, even if a device were located nearby. That's despite the fact that about one million AEDs—portable devices that can jump-start the heart and save lives when sudden cardiac arrest strikes—are installed in office buildings, malls, schools and sports stadiums around the U.S. <read more>

Contest aims to map Philadelphia's AEDS

January 31, 2012 | Action News

AEDs - or automated external defibrillators can save lives. But do you know where to find one? Penn Medicine today launched a contest to map the ones in Philadelphia. Dr. Raina Merchant, an emergency medicine specialist, created the MyHeartMap challenge after she and her research team realized how little is known about where life-saving AED's are. "We think there are about 5-thousand AEDs in the city of Philadelphia," she told Action News. <read more>

Health: MyHeartMap Challenge Saves Lives With Cell Phones

January 31, 2012 5:15 PM | By Stephanie Stahl

There's a new challenge for people in Philadelphia. They can now win money and save lives with their cell phones. Health Reporter Stephanie Stahl is On Your Side with a unique local contest that's starting Tuesday. It's a contest to locate AED's (Automated External Defibrillators), around the city. They help save lives when someone has a sudden cardiac arrest–when their heart stops beating. Cierra Edwards is on a treasure hunt. She's looking for Automated External Defibrillators, something that saved her dad's life at 30th Street Station.... <read more>

Global contest will lead to help during heart attacks

January 31, 2012 3:01 AM | By Marie McCullough | Inquirer Staff Writer

Around the world, the hunt is on for thousands of lifesaving portable medical devices that are hanging in public places - in Philadelphia. Why would someone in, say, Abu Dhabi care about finding devices in Philadelphia? Because a University of Pennsylvania project to map the locations of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) throughout the city has mushroomed into a global "crowdsourcing" competition fueled by the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, smartphones - and the chance to win cash prizes up to $10,000.
<read more>

Man Who Suffered Near Fatal Heart Attack Reunited With His 'Angels'

January 16, 2012 10:58 PM | By Walt Hunter

In a touching and extraordinary reunion, a Philadelphia man finally met the Septa manager and nurse who saved his life. When Tod Streets collapsed with a heart attack while waiting for his Septa train at the 30th Street Station two weeks ago, it was two strangers who came to his rescue. Only CBS 3 cameras were there as Streets met Septa Manager Garry Deans and nurse Jeanne Pundt who came to visit him at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania...<read more>

Project seeks to publicize life-saving defibrillators

December 21, 2011 | By Marie McCullough, Inquirer Staff Writer

Around the country, portable devices that can diagnose and treat life-threatening heart rhythms have been installed in shopping malls, arenas, offices, gyms, schools, and other public places. These automated external defibrillators (AEDs) have step-by-step audio instructions, so even an untrained bystander can become a lifesaver. Unless, of course, no one can find an AED when it's needed. Next month, University of Pennsylvania researchers will launch a project aimed at averting that horrifying situation...<read more>

Your Mission: Find Philly's Heart Defibrillators...There's $10,000 at stake.

December 14, 2011 | Emily Leaman
I bet you've walked by an automated external defibrillator (AED)—those machines that deliver a shock to the heart when it stops beating—a hundred times without noticing it. In a park. At your gym. At work. Now's the time to start noticing. A team at Penn Medicine launched a public challenge this fall to locate every AED in Philadelphia County. <read more>

Penn Med contest pairs defibrillators, phones

Ayana Jones
A group of Penn Medicine researchers has issued a challenge to the public. They're asking community members to help save lives by using their cell phones. The researchers are launching the MyHeartMap Challenge, a month-long contest slated to begin in January. The contest is geared toward sending thousands of Philadelphians to the streets and social media sites to locate as many automated <read more>

Twitter has potential to be a lifesaver

December 14, 2011
Twitter, that enormously popular social networking tool that now boasts some 300 million users, is associated with a number of things: mindless gossip, self-promotion and, of course, saving lives. <read more>

Philadelphia hunts for heart defibrillators

December 13, 2011 | Taunya English
Local public health researchers are asking for a little assistance--and offering some serious money--to help map where life-saving devices have been stashed around Philadelphia. Quick, think fast: If your boss falls down in cardiac arrest, where would you find one of those portable devices to get his heart going again? <read more>

Crowdsourcing good Samaritans

September 12, 2011 | M.H.
AUTOMATIC external defibrillators (AEDs) are a common sight in America, where many states now require them at fitness centres, schools or airports. These devices deliver potentially life-saving electric shocks to victims of sudden cardiac arrest, a condition that claims 300,000 American lives each year, more than AIDS and lung, breast and prostate cancers combined. <read more>

This App Could Save Your Life

August 9, 2011 | Lena Groeger
It could be your neighbor, your best friend, your father. They stop, clutch their chest, stumble to the ground. They're having a heart attack. In the tense seconds that follow, you know you need to act, and fast – the difference between life and death lies in your hands. Soon, it may also lie in your cell phone.<read more>

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Penn's MyHeartMap Challenge team is joined by members of the medical device industry, foundations, individual philanthropists and members of the community to launch this exciting, life-saving endeavor. Learn more about our sponsors, or about how to become a MyHeartMap Sponsor.