Pulsara Blog

Just for grins and giggles, I signed in to Netflix recently and watched a few episodes of the medical drama from the 70's, "Emergency!" I'm a little young to remember the show when it was on the air, but when I started in EMS, my paramedic partner insisted that I watch some of it. It was a rite of passage. Of course, there was also Bringing Out the Dead starring Nicholas Cage and Mother, Jugs & Speed with Bill Cosby, but those are for another post.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to Wes Gilbert for writing today's blog post. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.

I have been honored and privileged to spend 10 years of my life as a Firefighter and Paramedic. The risks and sacrifices were vast, but the reward was oftentimes overwhelming. From the carnage of twisted steel from entangled vehicles on a rainy interstate highway to seeing a patient who experienced a major stroke walk out of the hospital with little to no lasting deficiencies, I never ceased to be amazed at what the human body was capable of overcoming.

And while seeing our patients get healthy again never stops being one of the best feelings in the world, a bleak juxtoposition became apparent to me when looking at the health of the first responders caring for these patients. I began to notice that we had a serious epidemic on our hands. It appeared that more and more first responders were in poor health, and it was getting worse all the time. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that I began to pay more attention to this was because I was right there in the mix: I was 35 pounds overweight, had stage 1 hypertension, lipid panel values that were terrible, and nutrition habits that would make even the best competitive eater shake his finger at me. And to make matters worse, I was only 30 years old! Something had to change and fast, or I was going to find myself riding backwards on a bed in the back of a big box that my law enforcement brethren referred to as “The Bus.” I could hear myself screaming internally “Who’s the patient NOW, buddy?”

Feeling all alone out there on weekends/holidays/night shifts?

You’re not the only one. Any clinician involved in care of time sensitive emergent patients has experienced the frustration of delays in care during these “off times.” Unfortunately, strokes, STEMIs and traumas do not take time off. Two recent studies (here and here) released in London and Birmingham, UK allude to how process variations have resulted in a decrease in quality of stroke care. Specifically, the quality measurement of door to needle in less than 60 minutes took a hit, and was directly linked to day of week and time of day.

We have a saying in Montana: If you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes and it will change. And springtime in Montana often brings blizzards and hail storms one minute, followed by sunshine and blue skies the next. Seriously! 

Happy National EMS Week to all first responders out there from Team Pulsara! You are too often under appreciated, under paid, and work long hours in unpredictable conditions. You are heroes and we appreciate you more than you know! 

Still wondering exactly how Pulsara works to coordinate care between EMS and the hospital care teams? Know how it works but wish you had a step-by-step video to forward to friends and connections? Just want to watch Clinical Specialist Brandon Means explain the ins and outs of Pulsara on repeat?

Well, you're in luck.

We all know that when it comes to time sensitive emergencies, like stroke or STEMI, time is tissue. As such, it should come as no surprise that a recent study performed by the University of California-San Francisco and the National Bureau of Economic has found that among 30,000 heart attack patients, those who were transported by ambulances that were diverted from busy ERs to other, further away hospitals, were 10 percent more likely to be dead one year later. 

2015 has been an amazing year for Pulsara. We grew our incredible team, gained some amazing clients, helped several facilities finally acheive their desired D2N and D2B times, and pushed out some truly revolutionary features on our platform - all in the name of improving patient outcomes for time sensitive emergencies. 

To celebrate a successful year, we thought we'd reflect on Pulsara's 5 most popular blog posts from 2015. Some were funny, others serious, but all were educational. Take a look for yourself!

Perhaps the best testimonial a company like Pulsara could hope for, is one where someone is in a job they love so much that they say they will retire from that job - only to be so touched by our potential to impact lives on such a large scale that they feel compelled to come work for us instead. 

Brandon Means is a paramedic and RN who loves saving lives and helping sick patients above all else. In his past role, he was also a customer of Pulsara. After noting the effect the company had on door-to-needle and door-to balloon times, Brandon realized the opportunity to impact lives on such a broad scale was a chance he could not turn down and became one of our Clinical Specialists. The rest, as they say, is history. 

Recently, Brandon was chosen by Sam Bradley, host of the Disaster Podcast, to be featured on an episode of The MedicCast. The episode was cast live from the PhysioControl Studios on the floor of the EMS World Expo earlier this fall, after Sam saw a demo of Pulsara. 

A recent survey conducted by Infinite Convergence Solutions shows that the majority of healthcare institutions in the United States are using messaging apps and services that do not meet enterprise-grade standards for HIPAA and security regulations.

According to FierceMobileHealthcare, Infinite Convergence's CEO, Anurag Lal, said "CIOs and IT leaders in healthcare institutions need to make available an official ... messaging platform to their employees which also allows them to implement administrative, physical and technical safeguards that HIPAA requires." 

If your wife wanted you to pick up some milk on your way home, would she send you a fax or a page? Would she have her assistant call your answering service who will then let you know that you need to call her to tell you she needs some milk? 

Sounds ridiculous, right? In reality, your wife will simply text you. In 2 seconds, she can relay the simple message to you, you get it in real time, and can quickly type back "got it." It's simple, fast, effective communication that just makes sense. 

Unfortunately, when lives are on the line, we are still doing communications in the backwards, roundabout, convoluted way described in the first paragraph of this post and by Pulsara's CEO Dr. James Woodson in The Disaster Podcast's latest episode. 

Dr. Zubin Damania is a physician who, like many of his peers, felt trapped in a system that was dictating every aspect of his caregiving for him - forcing him to spend the majority of his time on reporting and data entry rather than with patients.

As an activist and advocate for better healthcare that fits with the pace of the modern world, Dr. Damania has devoted his spare time to breaking down barriers doctors face that prevent them from providing optimal care through his entertaining, creative, and genius parody music videos. When he's not being "ZDoggMD," Dr. Damania is transforming the traditional healthcare experience into one that is focused on the patient, rather than on bureaucracy.

Pulsara has been awarded the EMS Top Innovation Award, as announced at the September 2015 EMS World Expo in Las Vegas. This award is presented to the most innovative products of the year, as judged by a panel from the EMS World Expo Faculty and EMS World Editorial Advisory Board.

Pulsara is a platform that performs like an app to coordinate and simplify the care process for STEMI and stroke. The Pulsara story starts at a dinner party in late 2011, when a group of dedicated medical professionals who were part of Leading Edge Medical Associates (LEMA) came together to discuss a challenge: “How can we improve patient care in our facilities? How can we help our healthcare system pursue value based healthcare – providing improved quality of care at a lower cost?”

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to our guest blogger, Bob Sullivan. Bob Sullivan, MS, NRP, is a paramedic instructor at Delaware Technical Community College. He has been in EMS since 1999, and has worked as a paramedic in private, fire-based, volunteer, and municipal EMS services, and is an ally to Pulsara.

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1. There's little room to spare in the cranium.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was originally published on EMS1.com. EMS1 serves as the largest site for paramedics and EMTs to find expert industry-relevant content.

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Medical professionals are always pushing to discover better methods to improve patient outcomes. Nowhere is this more true than in acute care situations, where communication is critical and every second counts.  

But up until now, there hasn’t been a great one-size-fits-all solution to the problem of sharing information—benchmark times, patient information, etc.—between emergency response team members, due to great variation from place to place and organization to organization.

One company looked for a way to put a method to the madness. By pulling together people, alerts, and information in a single platform that’s available to everyone, the days of “who knew what when” can be put firmly in the past.

Here’s how Pulsara works, along with five reasons it is quickly becoming the leading technology for improving patient outcomes.

It was my first day in my new role as the STEMI/Chest Pain Coordinator. Because this position had been vacant for a year, the To Do list was daunting to say the least. As I attended my first meeting, I noticed that the EMS personnel in attendance was completely disengaged. I’m sure if I called him out on it he would have claimed that he was taking notes. In reality, he was probably playing Angry Birds or Words With Friends. I didn’t blame him. We weren’t a cohesive team and it showed.

The meeting was uneventful. Afterwards, my new boss said something to the effect that EMS is always disengaged and “Good luck with that!” I needed the EMS team to be on my side in order to build a successful program.

Fast forward 30 days.

Recently a coworker here at Pulsara (not mentioning any names, but thanks Kris Kaull) paid me what is probably the best compliment I’ve ever received … he called me a recovering paramedic. I didn’t know how to take it at first, but then I realized, he’s right. I guess he’s seen the signs and symptoms before.

You see, it all started just like so many others, my dream job as a teen was being a paramedic. After a couple years in college, I achieved that goal and began what was at that point, my life’s work, and I loved it right up to the very last shift.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to Jeffrey Hobson for writing today's blog post. You can connect with him on LinkedIn. 

This seems to be one of the most common questions people ask firefighters and paramedics.

Imagine the following scenario: 

You call 911 for your neighbor who’s having chest pain. Within a few moments, a big fire engine shows up with your community’s beloved uniformed firefighters. Your friends and fellow neighbors take notice right away and ask, “Why can’t they just send an ambulance? Do they need to waste all that money sending a big truck to a simple medical incident? Can a firefighter really help me right now?”