More On Human Emergency Life Point
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
We delved deeper in the new company Human Emergency Life Point (aka HELP) that we wrote about yesterday to learn more and spoke to Patrick Holota, COO and CFO, one of the two partners, the other being Gabor Bacskai Lauro, CEO and CTO – and credited by Holota as being the initial inventor and mastermind of the HELP idea.
It turned out that Holota and Lauro are actually based in Hungary.
“We registered the company in Liechtenstein because it’s a lot easier to do business on a worldwide scale from Liechtenstein or Switzerland,” said Holota. “We have a 15-year background in advertising billboards with our other company in Hungary, and we see that digital signage is the future. But it must bring benefits. There should be a social responsibility.
“HELP has been a professional company for five years but we are now just rolling out our product, which we have totally financed ourselves. Part of the development included putting a 55” double-sided unit outside where it stayed for two years in all kinds of weather without it being touched, to see how it performed and what problems we might have to fix. After two years, we brought it inside, took it apart to see any problems, and there were none. So we knew then that we had a good product.”
Holota and Lauro searched various companies before choosing the German company Videro AG as the best software for its needs, while the HELP terminals are produced for the company by Infinitus, based in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
“We searched the whole globe for a partner and these guys at Infinitus are simply the kings when it comes to real reliability in tough conditions,” says Holota. “There’s no better than this – as mentioned, we tested our prototype over two years.
“We use Physio-Control defibrillators as a recommendation, but we adapt to local situation so the HELP terminal can take any layperson defibrillator on the market.
HELP’s patent at this time is for all of Europe and some other areas including Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, but its management also hopes to go worldwide, including North America.
“Our plan is to license this to partners, who will buy the terminals from us but who can use their own choice of defibrillator and will also handle or arrange their own advertising sales, either on their own or through advertising representatives,” says Holota.
As we understand it, in addition to terminals and license fee, HELP would receive a small percentage from the advertising sales.
The partners have thought of many things, including the fact that defibrillators may entice thievery in some countries, despite the fact that there would be difficulty selling the stolen items. Therefore, the usual method would be, if a person seems to be going into cardiac arrest, that someone nearby would quickly phone 911, which would direct the person to the nearest HELP unit. That person would punch in a pin number and then could use the defibrillator immediately without any training, by following instructions as directed via the defibrillator. In other cases, a simple emergency button could open the unit.
And, of course, the digital screen technology in the unit itself would quickly change from advertising to a quick instruction screen when the defibrillator is needed.
“Now we are ready to find partners in each country or region to license,” says Holota, adding that in some countries, medical companies or associations may help with finances when a good project such as these life-saving stations are a possibility.
Holota can be reached at p.holota@help-international.li
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