About CrowdCAD
Built by volunteers for volunteer event medicine
CrowdCAD was created by a team within the Berkeley Medical Reserve Corps, a volunteer medical organization based at the University of California, Berkeley. It grew out of a recurring operational gap in event medical standby. Volunteer and collegiate EMS teams often need better ways to post crews, track calls, coordinate dispatchers, and manage venue operations, but many do not have the budget, infrastructure, or training time required for commercial dispatch systems.
In conversations with other collegiate and volunteer EMS organizations, we saw that this was not a niche problem. Some teams supporting large events were still relying on pen and paper, spreadsheets, whiteboards, and improvised trackers even when they were handling significant patient volume and coordinating teams across large venues.
Why we built CrowdCAD
- • Event medical operations need tools built for temporary venues, volunteer staffing, and mobile field coordination.
- • Many teams rely on radios and volunteer dispatchers, so software has to be easy to learn and practical under pressure.
- • Not every organization can support GPS-heavy tools, complex enterprise systems, or expensive vendor platforms.
- • Open-source software gives organizations room to adapt workflows to their own needs.
What CrowdCAD is designed to do
- • Post teams and keep assignments visible
- • Track calls and operational activity
- • Support dispatch and field coordination during events
- • Reduce dependence on improvised tracking methods
- • Stay accessible to volunteer-run organizations
CrowdCAD focuses on the essentials. It is meant to be usable by volunteer organizations, customizable by organizations that want to build on it, and practical for the realities of event medicine rather than the assumptions of municipal 911 systems.
About Berkeley Medical Reserve Corps
The Berkeley Medical Reserve Corps provides medical coverage at football and hockey games, Cal Performances concerts, and many other campus events, including Cal Day and graduation. Beyond event operations, BMRC also runs semesterly mass-casualty incident drills to maintain disaster readiness and teaches CPR, First Aid, and Stop the Bleed classes for the broader Berkeley community.