Hannah Ostrem

Having a stroke is a life or death matter, yet a shocking number of adults do not know how to recognize the symptoms in themselves or others. One study found that 70% of adults who had suffered a TIA or minor stroke misidentified their symptoms and 30% wait for over 24 hours before seeking medical attention.

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. 

"A nurse should have fewer patients in order to provide the best possible care, and that care should not [include] caring for the EHR ... we need better technolgy to bind us together." 

Editor's Note: The Figure 1 app contains medical images, some of which may be unsettling to certain viewers. Discretion is advised.

Pulsara is postioned at the intersection of healthcare and technology, and as such we love learning about other apps, products and services that also find themselves in this space. One such app is Figure 1, which can be thought of as an Instagram for medical providers, available for both iOS and Android.

On the platform, doctors, nurses and medical students are able to post images of cases they are working on to get feedback and insights from peers - or just to share photos of their most bizarre, interesting, or puzzling symptoms.

Podcasts have increasingly become an invaluable medium for consuming information - from news to politics to entertainment to healthcare, there are podcasts dedicated to virtually every topic. When it comes to the world of Interventional Neurology, one podcast in particular stands out. 

Since its inception, Pulsara has been reducing case times for STEMI and stroke patients, ultimately resulting in shorter hospital stays, fewer deficits after treatment, and major cost and resource savings for the facilities we serve. And while all of the hospital and patient benefits we see are exciting, it is especially inspiring when patients walk away 100% deficit free after a stroke or STEMI. 

UPDATED April 21, 2021: This article has been revised, updated, and expanded for current accuracy and comprehensiveness.  

IT'S A FACT: Your patients are having Large Vessel Occlusion (LVO) strokes, whether your facility has protocols in place to manage them or not. So what exactly is an LVO stroke and what's your plan for treating these patients?

If you don't have a plan that works EVERY SINGLE TIME, then you are falling below the national standard of care. 

Last week we posted about the importance of patient symptom education in early identification and, thereby, positive outcomes for heart attack. Similarly, patient education is crucial in achieving the shortest times between symptom onset and treatment for stroke patients. 

Whether through a video, a catchy jingle, or just the use of the acronym itself, patients need to know about FAST and what it means in regards to stroke. The following video describes how body language can tell us about a myriad of behaviors, thoughts, and intentions, and it can also provide the life-saving information needed to detect a stroke right away. Check it out and pass it on to your patients!

The findings of new research support the notion that improving heart attack outcomes begins with patient education.

The study - which suggests that early treatment to restore blood flow rapidly after heart attack symptom onset may reduce heart tissue damage - tested 2056 patients who had received treatment in three different time groupings. The first group received treatment less than 2 hours after symptom onset, the second group received treatment 2-4 hours after symptom onset, and the third group received treatment more than 4 hours after symptom onset.

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!

Since current diagnostic measures for can take up to three hours to complete, patients suffering a stroke - a condition in which 2 million brain cells die per minute - are particularly at risk for lasting impairments after treatment. 

“Three-quarters of stroke patients suffer from ischemic stroke—a blockage of a blood vessel in the brain. In those cases, time is of the essence, because there is a good drug available, but for a successful outcome it has to be given within three or four hours after the onset of symptoms,” Roy Cohen, a research scientist at the Baker Institute for Animal Health at Cornell University says. “By the time someone identifies the symptoms, gets to the hospital, and sits in the emergency room, you don’t have much time to obtain the full benefit of this drug.”

It's almost Christmas, and we at Pulsara hope you're having a wonderful holiday season! To get all of you healthcare professionals in the spirit, we thought we would share another fabulous parody video by ZDoggMD. A few months ago, we posted another video by the physician, and talked a bit about his mission and his new vision for healthcare. If you missed it, check out that post here. 

In ZDoggMD's latest video, "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Sepsis," he croons that "It's beginning to look just like malpractice, when you miss the signs..." We care about you and your patients, and don't want you to miss the signs. So enjoy ZDoggMD's fun, holiday-spirited Sepsis video and then review those symptoms below!

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. 

I was sitting next to one of our Lead QA Engineers at Pulsara and as he was looking through our app's use statistics. He made an observation that piqued my interest: "We have consistently fewer users on the weekends! I wonder if there is decreased incidence of time-sensitive emergencies on those days?" 

Intrigued by the thought that emergency conditions like STEMI and stroke—which are highly unpredictable in nature—could be somehow pinned down to a day-of-the-week trend, I decided to delve in deeper and see if there was any literature to back up the hunch. Here's what I found:

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. 

What does Thanksgiving mean to you? Hopefully, it means gathering with loved ones over hot, delicious food and reflecting on how blessed each and every one of us truly is. We at Pulsara are an incredibly thankful bunch! Thankful for the opportunity to work in such a beautiful setting as Montana, thankful to be so excited about the work we're doing that we often have to be coaxed by family and friends to stop working for a few hours, and thankful that we have such incredible, dedicated clients who are making massively tangible differences in the lives of STEMI and stroke patients. We are honored to serve you. Here, summarized in a word cloud, are the things we as a team are most thankful for:

But Thanksgiving isn't the only time of year we reflect on our blessings. In fact, several Pulsarians make it a part of their daily routines to either think about or write down at least three things they are thankful for. It can be little things like a visit to the Pulsara office from the building owner's doggy, the taste of an especially sweet tangerine, snow tires on icy roads, or spotting a bird building a nest.

On November 19th, residents of 35 major cities across the U.S. were able to pay a small fee for a wellness package and up to 10 flu shots - from transportation mogul Uber!

Within the same app customers already use to request rides, they were also able to request a flu shot. For just $10, Uber made house calls (or office calls) with licensed nurses who administered flu shots for up to 10 people per request. Uber hopes to use these UberHEALTH days to work toward a healthier future for all.