CHELMSFORD, MA -- The PulsePoint Foundation, a public non-profit that builds public safety applications and maintains the National Emergency AED Registry (NEAR), and ZOLL, an Asahi Kasei company that manufactures medical, including automated external defibrillators (AEDs), announces a new initiative, Anyone Can Register.

The program will rally volunteers, AED owners, and AED manufacturers to expand NEAR so AED locations nationwide are known and recommended during cardiac emergencies. Launching in February 2026 during American Heart Month, the initiative is part of ZOLL’s national Anything Can Happen.

Anyone Can Help.™ campaign, which works to close the gap between CPR awareness and action by showing that AEDs do more than deliver a shock. They guide bystanders with step-by-step CPR instructions and can help improve outcomes for cardiac arrest patients.

“In a cardiac emergency, when seconds count, it is crucial to quickly locate the nearest AED,” said Elijah White, President, ZOLL Acute Care Technology. “With PulsePoint, we’re working to make NEAR the nation’s first comprehensive registry, bringing all AEDs, no matter brand or owner, into a single validated system so these devices are always findable in emergencies.”

In September 2024, ZOLL donated the National AED Registry™ to PulsePoint and intends to add all of its community-deployed AED devices to NEAR. Anyone Can Register builds on these contributions by encouraging all AED manufacturers to share their device locations, and citizen volunteers to locate and add to NEAR all AEDs in their community to further accelerate growth of the registry.

“NEAR already connects more than 200,000 AEDs to 911 telecommunicators and responders, but millions remain unregistered,” said Richard Price, Founder and President, PulsePoint Foundation. “With ZOLL’s support, we can engage more communities and urge other AED manufacturers to register their devices, ensuring they are findable when lives are on the line.”

How the NEAR Registry Works

PulsePoint AED mobile app is a free tool that allows users to build and mobilize NEAR. The registry can be integrated with public safety applications such as call-handling software and telecommunicator medical guidance systems, enabling 911 call takers to inform callers when an AED is nearby. The app can also notify nearby AED owners and trained volunteers when a defibrillator is urgently needed, allowing them to act when seconds count.

How “Anyone Can Register” Will Help NEAR Grow

To make NEAR truly comprehensive, Anyone Can Register will mobilize volunteers, AED manufacturers, and owners to locate and add devices in their communities using the PulsePoint AED app or by visiting AED.new. The process is a simple, flexible, and scalable way for anyone to help grow the registry in just minutes.

Download the free PulsePoint AED app (available in the App Store or Google Play).

Locate AEDs in your community, in schools, gyms, businesses, and public spaces.

Register AEDs in the app, which captures location details, contextual pictures, and co-located resources such as naloxone.

Validate: Once vetted by trained community members or public safety officials, the AED locations are added to NEAR and made available to responders and 911 telecommunicators.

To learn more, volunteer, or sign up your organization to join Anyone Can Register, visit www.anyonecanhelp.com/register-aeds/.

Why It Matters

Each year in the U.S., more than 356,000 cardiac arrests occur outside hospitals, yet fewer than half of victims receive CPR, and only 1 in 10 are helped with an AED.
A 2025 Harris Poll on behalf of ZOLL found that:

74 percent of bystanders would feel capable of giving life-saving aid with real-time instruction, yet many don’t realize AEDs provide this guidance.

27 percent of bystanders are not confident they could find an AED when needed.

Expanding NEAR strengthens emergency response and helps close the access and knowledge gap across communities by making AEDs more accessible and better understood, helping to save more lives.