MediQuest Technologies - Director of Communications - 2010 to 2011
Over 40,000 Canadians die of sudden cardiac arrest every year, and many of them would survive if a defibrillator had been there there to shock their heart out of atrial fibrillation. MediQuest Technologies is dedicated to making sure that someone is there during sudden cardiac arrest with life-saving CPR and, if needed, a defibrillator. Despite being a relatively small and new company, MediQuest has already saved a number of lives.
In total, MediQuest trains about 10,000 people in British Columbia each year in lifesaving CPR techniques.
Because of it’s small size, I have done some small (but significant) jobs for MediQuest.
Time for a new website
One of the first thing I helped MediQuest with was a redesign of their website – using the Joomla content management system. It not only boosted the look, feel and navigation of the website – but it also boosted traffic and search engine ranking. Joomla has a search engine optimization function that seemed to work like a charm.
If you live in Canada, type in “AED” into Google… MediQuest is one of the first search results on the first page.
The website also features a cool online demo of a defibrillator and how it functions. Go to www.mediquest.ca to try it out for yourself.
Life-saving initiatives are popular with reporters
Another gratifying project was working on publicity for a BC Firefighters Without Borders trek to Thailand, in which they implemented a defibrillator CPR program in honour of Noah Yelizarov.
Noah was tragically struck by powerlines during a Tsunami and went into sudden cardiac arrest. If paramedics had responded with a defibrillator, Noah could still be alive today. Because of this, his family, friends, and supporters have been on a mission to make defibrillators and training more accessible.
In December of last 2009 we held a media conference at a Richmond firehall to hand over the defibrillators to the Firefighters headed to Thailand. The event was a tremendous success, and was carried in the Province, Sun, the Richmond Review and CTV.
This publicity effort is one of my career highlights. Find out more about it here.
In my work with MediQuest, I like to think that I have had some small part in saving someone’s life.
