• Medulance, India’s first technology-enabled emergency response service provider, has integrated what3words to locate people in need with increased accuracy
• what3words has divided the world into 3m x 3m squares and given each square a unique combination of three random words: a what3words address.
• With what3words, emergency operators and callers can communicate any precise location easily and quickly, which so far has reduced Medulance’s incident response times from 35 to 11 minutes

Medulance, India’s first technology-enabled emergency response service provider, has today announced the successful rollout of what3words. The partnership enables faster incident response times for patients in medical emergencies all over India. With the free what3words app, patients can identify and share exactly where assistance is needed, even in areas with no or weak data connection.

Medulance has an aggregated fleet of 7,500 ambulances across 60 cities, and is one of the emergency services providers who are also a part of the Government’s 102 Ambulance fleet in Delhi. The company also offers a service to its own customers and via a dedicated helpline number. Medulance aims to revolutionise the medical transportation space with fast and efficient dispatch and response times.

When it comes to time critical emergencies, being able to find and communicate precise locations is key. This can be challenging in a country like India that’s both densely populated and home to vast unaddressed areas. In medical emergencies, there often isn’t enough time to have long conversations over the phone or via text to figure out a caller’s exact location. However, what3words has made it possible to identify and easily communicate any location, precise to a 3m x 3m square. With the technology, Medulance has reduced its emergency response time from 35 minutes to 11 minutes on average, and in some cases dispatch teams in Delhi have arrived at an incident in under ten minutes.

what3words has divided the globe into a grid of 3m  x 3m squares and given each square a unique combination of three random words: a what3words address. will take you to the entrance of the AIIMS Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre in New Delhi. The what3words app is free to download for both iOS and Android devices, and works offline, making it ideal for use in areas with unreliable data connection. what3words can also be used via the online map at what3words.com.

The technology is available in over 50 languages, including 12 South Asian languages: Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada, Nepali, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Odia, and Punjabi. If a caller doesn’t have the what3words app, call handlers can share an SMS with a link to what3words.com which allows the caller to retrieve the what3words address for their exact location and recite it over the phone. The technology will save dispatchers and responders precious time and resources in an emergency, and in some cases, save lives.

The what3words technology is already being used by over 120 emergency services control centres around the world in the UK, US, Australia, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, Singapore, Canada, India, and South Africa to locate people in need. Medulance is already seeing the benefits of using what3words, and how it can shave precious minutes off emergency response times. For example, in Delhi, a caller needed to book an ambulance for his grandparents who are residents of Kamatchi Amman Kovil St, Puducherry. Using what3words, the elderly patients were able to communicate their precise location to the Medulance drivers, who were able to locate them with ease. The patients were treated and have made a full recovery.

Medulance has also found what3words to be useful in parts of Southern and North East India. In remote locations, callers can struggle to describe their exact location without any identifiable landmarks or street addresses to guide them. With what3words, Medulance are operating more efficiently in rural areas, and provide assistance to victims in distress.

Pranav Bajaj, Co- Founder of Medulance comments: “In an industry where response time matters the most, what3words has helped us reduce our response time with their efficient, easy to communicate, and location-based services. Medulance has been able to provide a response time of less than 10 minutes with a seamless service. Besides other data-driven practices, what3words has played a major role in helping Medulance save and assist more lives. Even when a person calls us directly on our helpline, what3words allows us to track the patient accurately even without a smart application.”

Chris Sheldrick, Co-founder and CEO of what3words adds: “Receiving timely aid in an emergency is incredibly important, but this can be difficult for dispatch teams when a caller can’t describe exactly where they are. With what3words, anyone can identify their location with just three simple words. This can be lifesaving in an emergency.”