Heartrunner Sweden is a small and expanding company founded in Stockholm, driven by the conviction that volunteers have the power to make a difference. With this core belief, they have pioneered technology for time-critical emergencies, alerting volunteer responders to provide swift cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) before an ambulance arrives.
Every year, 350,000 people suffer from OHCA in Europe, and overall, the survival rate is only 10%. With early CPR, i.e., before the ambulance arrives, many more lives can be saved,” says David Fredman, co-founder, PhD, and operations manager.
What started as a research project at Karolinska Institutet over 15 years ago has now grown to a successful international business that saves lives every day. The idea of alerting volunteer responders was born from dire need. Almost 20 years ago, the survival rate in OHCA was extremely low in Stockholm, prompting a group of researchers at the Karolinska Institute to try to make a difference. To explore new ways to increase bystander-CPR in OHCA, they ventured on a path new to everyone. What many once considered a radical idea is now widely implemented in society, and the Heartrunner system safeguards 14 million people in Sweden and Denmark combined, with over a quarter million dedicated volunteers.
The idea was novel at the time, revolutionary even. Now, the implementation of systems that alert volunteer responders in OHCA is part of the resuscitation guidelines in Europe and the USA. To have been pioneering something that was considered crazy at the time but now is considered almost “standard care” is incredible and humbling, David continues. Heartrunner Sweden is true to its heritage, rooted in research, they are open to collaborating with Swedish and international universities. They currently support several national and international research projects.
The third generation of the platform, which has been the cornerstone of Heartrunner Sweden’s success, is currently being transformed to fulfill more needs better. It can be used for a multitude of other, more or less time-critical incidents, more or less life-threatening, depending on the situation and need. Since 2023, volunteers have been alerted to fires in terrain and buildings in a region on the West Coast of Sweden using the Heartrunner platform. This was awarded Community Service Provider of the Year in 2025 and is now expanding to more regions and to include more types of alarms.
David explains that this is the result of high-end tech development, keeping an ear to the ground, and exploring and expanding collaborations and partnerships to make the world a better place.
