East Texas Medical Center EMS will host CPR on the Square in downtown Tyler from 9 a.m. until noon on Saturday.

The event is to educate the public on how to provide lifesaving cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR.

Last month, ETMC EMS became the first in Texas to launch the PulsePoint smartphone application, which helps improve sudden cardiac arrest survival rates by enabling bystanders to provide CPR and access an automated external defibrillator nearby.

The app is integrated into ETMC EMS’s computer-aided dispatch system, which sends out alerts to PulsePoint users simultaneously with the dispatch of local EMS.

Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in the United States, claiming about 325,000 lives each year. Effective CPR provided immediately after a sudden cardiac arrest can double a person’s chance of survival, according to the American Heart Association.

Health officials said may take about 15 minutes to learn CPR at the event. However, it is not a certification course.

The Robert E. Lee High School baseball team will be on hand to show participants how to download the PulsePoint app.

There will also be booths from ETMC, Tyler police and fire departments, blood pressure screenings and refreshments.

The PulsePoint app is free and available for Apple and Google Android devices from the Apple App Store and Google Play.

For more information, visit www.etmc.org or www.pulse point.org.