Pulsara Blog

August 4th marked the 4th Annual Startup Day Across America, which focused on the importance of entrepreneurs and startup companies in economic prosperity and advancement of culture and technology. The event both raises awareness of impactful new businesses across the country, and seeks to promote ways of ensuring success for these new companies.

Recently Senators Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.), co-authored an article which was published on the national news and politics website, The Hill. The senators pointed out that startup culture and innovation is no longer limited to hubs like Silicon Valley, but rather are increasingly found in local communities throughout the United States. Among many Michigan and Montana startup companies highlighted, the article also featured Bozeman-based Pulsara and their efforts to improve patient outcomes through simplified communication between EMS and hospital staff. 

The August issue of the EMS World Magazine features a photo of three key players who are leading the transformation of stroke care, particularly with regards to Large Vessel Occlusions (LVO). This transformation is crucial to improve patient outcomes by getting stroke patients the treatment they need in as little time as possible - especially since 2 million brain cells die each minute a patient is having a stroke. Part of this effort includes establishing regional systems of care, which help first responders and other members of the care team decide which facility a patient should go to for the best treatment; currently many patients are initially brought to hospitals that are not equipped to deliver the level of stroke care needed and must then be transferred. In fact, according to the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare, 80% of serious medical errors involve miscommunication between caregivers when patients are being transferred. 

Bozeman, MT — Pulsara is thrilled to announce that a long-time Pulsara client, Good Shepherd Medical Center (GSMC), has recently been awarded the Get with the Guidelines-Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award in recognition of their success in implementing quality improvement measures for stroke treatment as defined by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. 

Pulsara has added several new features to better enable stroke care teams to build regional systems of care.

--

Bozeman, MT - May 17th, 2016 - With the addition of Stroke Vitals to the Pulsara platform in 4.5, EMS Agencies and Hospitals can now truly build a regional system of care for stroke patients.

"You can solve your region’s LVO (Large Vessel Occlusion) problem, identify which patients need endovascular treatment for acute ischemic stroke and QUICKLY get the right patients to the right treatment," said James Woodson, Pulsara Founder and CEO.

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.

ThedaCare, a seven-hospital system in Northeast Wisconsin, serves over 200,000 patients per year and has always prided itself on being at the forefront of implementing new ways to provide the best, cutting edge medical care possible for its patients. Recently (also announced in a press release on March 14), this goal has materialized in the form of ThedaCare's partnership with Pulsara. 

Pulsara has added several new features to better enable endovascular treatment for stroke patients at hospitals that are intervention capable. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

We've been saying it from day 1: time is tissue. As such, your critical care team needs to be impeccably organized to consistently shave minutes off of STEMI and stroke cases and ultimately provide better outcomes for your patients. At Pulsara, we are dedicated to helping you do just that. 

But don't take our word for it! Erlanger Medical Center is an impressive facility in Chattanooga, TN, serving as the area's only level-one trauma center and boasting the fourth largest interventional stroke program in the country. Erlanger also shines in cardiovascular care, with an average time to intervention of just 62 minutes (versus the 90-minute national standard).

Bozeman, MT - November 4th, 2015 - Pulsara's development team has created several new features, which will be released in the next version of the app (version 4.2). Some of the new features include: 

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

Background:

St. Dominic Hospital is a 400 bed primary stroke center in Jackson, Miss. The soon-to-be comprehensive stroke center currently sees about 1100 stroke patients per year from all over the state, from transfers to “drip-and-ships.” These patients are treated for a variety of strokes including ischemic strokes, hemorrhagic strokes and TIAs.

Wendy Barrilleaux has been the director of the program for four years. The stroke team (some of whom are pictured below in the photo courtesy of Barrilleaux) includes six nurse practitioners, several neurologists and interventionalists, as well as emergency room and radiology staff. She recently adopted an innovative communication platform that allows all of the staff, as well as EMS providers, to connect with each other and share.

 Problem:

St. Dominic Hospital was looking to improve their door-to-needle time.  The previous year’s goal was to reduce the time to below 60 minutes, which was a success. While an average of less than 60 minutes is a praiseworthy time, when dealing with stroke patients, every second, let alone every minute, counts. Time is tissue is the oft-repeated mantra. In their effort to continually improve, this year St. Dominic aimed to reduce that time down to 45 minutes.