Bryx Inc. speeds work of emergency responders

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In its modest home-style digs at 120 East Ave., Bryx Inc. looks no different from any other local startup. A crew of 11 engineers and staffers populate half of a small office area fit with the requisite array of Apple monitors, with the other half of the open space filled by the company kitchen.

Yet, despite their small stature, the company has netted itself some big clients through their suite of disruptive products for first responders. Founded in 2014 by CEO Dave Thomas, Bryx is the producer of tech dedicated to streamlining the work of first responders, through both a mobile app, Bryx 911, and fully automated, plug and play alert systems for fire departments. Bryx’s first run was in 2014 with the Detroit Fire Department, and has since expanded to 38 states, three continents and a total of 18,000 users.

“We were coming up on Mischief Night, the night before Halloween, where the city of Detroit could have hundreds of fires in a night because gangs go out and light these abandoned buildings on fire,” Thomas said. “Over the course of six weeks, my small group of engineers went out and we deployed it in the city of Detroit. Long story short, they’re now using it citywide.”

That service was launched for free in Detroit, during a time when the city had recently declared bankruptcy. Thomas described it as a “gentleman’s agreement” that once the city pulled itself out of bankruptcy, Bryx would be offered the chance to be made a vendor. Detroit held true to its word—according to meeting minutes of the city of Detroit’s public health and safety standing committee from Feb. 12, Bryx was awarded a contract valued at $666,900 for 38 fire station alerting systems.

Those systems essentially convert a station into a fully automated unit. When a call comes in, the Bryx Station control box can open doors, light up the station, set off alarms, turn off stoves and shut doors as engines leave.

“It’s basically fire station automation,” Thomas said. “We got some grant money from Detroit and installed it at their stations. We … realized, as a team, we can do this better than anybody else and a lot cheaper.”

Bryx Station is a product that is likely to serve as a financial driver for the company. Thomas said opportunities are popping everywhere from across the Northeast to Hawaii.

“We’re basically the only, completely cloud-based solution out there,” Thomas said.

The Bryx 911 platform, meanwhile, has spread rapidly around the world as a streamlined, mobile app-based product for first responders. All of the fire stations in Rochester currently use Bryx 911, as well as Monroe ambulance and a wealth of other first responder services across Monroe County. The app sends 911 alerts directly from the station up to 45 seconds more quickly than radio, offers past 911 call information about the call site and allows users to communicate with each other and post live updates on the scene. While Bryx Station is what Thomas says “will pay the bills,” Bryx 911 is a free service available to career and volunteer first responder units.

Along with being an engineer at Bryx, Adam Green has served as an emergency medical technician with Monroe Ambulance for a year and a half.

“A lot of times I’ll see calls come through on our app before the dispatcher even starts talking, because essentially our app is the same information that our dispatchers get,” Green said. “So in a situation where I’m waiting for a psychiatric emergency, I’ll often see updates from a call taker who called 911 on my phone, which will reduce air time, keep the radios clear for other crews, while I’m still getting information about what’s going on at the scene.”

In the moments following something like a car accident, there are two critical lines of communication. The first is between the 911 caller and the dispatcher, who then relays the information to the EMTs. That line of communication is critical for preparing EMTs for what they’ll find at the scene, what immediate procedures they may need to perform, how many people are injured, and so on. Once the patient is loaded into the ambulance, the second critical line opens up, this time between the ambulance and the trauma center.

The Kessler Burn and Trauma Center, part of the University of Rochester Medical Center, is the only full-service trauma center in the 13 county region.

“The trauma centers, we have to activate a team, and when you think about trauma, it usually means you’re bleeding or some part of your body is broken—we have to stop that process,” said Bill Hallinan, trauma program manager at Kessler. “The reason why that’s important is that, when an EMT calls in and gives us information, we have levels of alertness—what the EMT says is how I decide how many people I’m waking up in the middle of the night, or stopping what they’re doing and making them come to the emergency room.”

Communication is traditionally done over the phone or radio from EMTs to the trauma center, and, unsurprisingly, accuracy is incredibly important. Doctors need to know what’s coming in, but according to a 2016 study done by URMC on the use of Bryx, the traditional way often leaves room for improvement.

In the study, 50 calls from ambulances made from the app were compared with 50 made via a traditional cellular phone. For the conventional phone, pre-arrival notifications were given about 5 minutes and 55 second before arriving, on average, while for the app, notifications were given 12 minutes and 37 seconds before arrival, an improvement of 44 percent. The app also allows EMTs to directly send medical information on the patient’s status to the trauma ward, replacing the traditional phone mechanism. For the traditional cellular calls, 44 percent had complete objective arrival signs received before the patient arrived. For the app users, the number was 84.3 percent.

“Really, just the fact that we gave someone a scroll and click thing where they were submitting real, numerical information, they were more compliant,” Hallinan said. “We had real, objective numbers, instead of just saying something like ‘the patient’s unconscious.'”

Hallinan also likened the traditional system to a game of telephone, where an EMT’s message is relayed to a communications nurse, who then relays it to a trauma surgeon, and so forth, which often can lead to miscommunications. Bryx, instead, offers hard information, ensuring everyone is on the same page.

“Now, when we go to the trauma bay, where the patients are initially treated, we have a screen right there where we see exactly what the medic sent from the street,” Hallinan said. “We’ve eliminated the hand-off of all that information. It’s objective, and … the trauma surgeon can see the information that the caller said to the 911 operator.”

While Hallinan said that there are cultural barriers that need to be broken—the sight of an EMT with a phone in their hand at the scene of a shooting can easily be misinterpreted—the advantages of Bryx’s system is obvious for streamlining a time-critical scenario.

Green said much of the same—having the app effectively removes the element of surprise when showing up on the scene.

“It keeps me in the loop more so than without it,” Green said. “It keeps me prepared, and now, myself and everyone I know who uses the app can’t imagine going back.”

On top of Bryx Station, the company has other proposed technology in the works, including Bryx Drone, a tool that allows a Bryx 911 platform user to launch and deploy an unmanned aircraft that will transmit a live video stream from the scene.

“What we’re seeing right now is that first responders are happy,” Thomas said. “They’re getting (information) that’s reliable, it’s quick and it provides a whole lot more information than they’d ever get from their pagers.”

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