PULSE Enterprise

Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergencies™

Secure Access to Patient Health Information for Emergency Responders

PULSE Enterprise is a fully supported solution built for public health and emergency management authorities to securely query for patient clinical and medication histories from across several national health information networks to solve critical gaps in patient care during public health emergencies and disasters.

PULSE Enterprise arms medical providers and emergency responders with real-time information about patient pre-existing and chronic conditions, allergies, and other clinical history to provide safe and timely medical care for displaced individuals. Access to these data prevents avoidable hospitalizations, reduces adverse events, and increases cost savings. Unlike patient care technologies solely focused on routine care, PULSE Enterprise is optimized for the unique demands of field conditions to reduce burden on providers, support high quality care for patients, and accelerate the return to routine care.

PULSE Enterprise Features

Designed for Emergency Response

Enables secure access to patient health information for authorized providers in field environments. Uses widely-adopted industry standards and insight from experts in disaster medicine and public health preparedness to seamlessly deliver patient data when and where it is needed.

Robust Medication and Clinical History Data

Leverages national health information networks that together cover at least 75% of hospitals, 80% of pharmacies, 77% of dialysis centers, and several federal agencies including the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense.

Dedicated Technical Assistance & Support

Subscriptions come with full, wrap-around programmatic support, including unlimited use in disasters, 24/7 service desk support during activations , and a dedicated Engagement Manager to assist with implementation, training, and activation.

Supports Family Reunification Efforts

Individuals can be checked in and out of shelter environments, whereby creating a roster that can be used to facilitate patient tracking and family reunification efforts. PULSE Enterprise is also interoperable with Audacious Inquiry’s flagship Encounter Notification Service (ENS)® such that the shelter rosters can be collocated with hospital and emergency department admission data and cross-referenced against a list of missing persons.

 

Health needs do not pause during crises like Hurricane Ida, so it is important for medical professionals to have as much clinical and medical information as possible about displaced patients. Being able to deploy a tool as simple yet impactful as PULSE has made all the difference for the nurse managers in our shelters as they work to provide better-informed patient care.

-Dakota Duncan, BCFS EMD Executive Director

History & Milestones

A look through the years

In late 2014, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) awarded a joint HHS Ventures award, through HHS’ innovative IDEA Lab, to lay the foundation for PULSE. The award provided for a PULSE program in California through the development of a detailed use case, technical architecture, and an evaluation of policy considerations.

Over the next several years, Audacious Inquiry worked with ONC and other partners to expand upon the California experience and develop an infrastructure that could be deployed nationwide. Today, PULSE Enterprise can be made available in any geographic area to support healthcare professionals and emergency responders caring for displaced individuals, or volunteer healthcare workers who are deployed to a disaster area outside of their normal health IT environment.

2021

The state of Florida adopts PULSE Enterprise, known locally as E-PLUS.

Texas activated and utilized PULSE Enterprise to support Louisiana’s response to Hurricane Ida. With the support of the Louisiana Department of Health, BCFS Emergency Management Division who was tasked to staff the medical shelters, worked with THSA and Audacious Inquiry to rapidly address the legal, governance, and technology requirements to deploy Texas’ technology in Louisiana.

California transitioned from the legacy PULSE to PULSE Enterprise and successfully deployed PULSE Enterprise to the San Diego area to staff monoclonal antibody therapy regional centers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) are positioned to support the Surfside Condo collapse using E-PLUS.

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), working closely with Florida Health (the state Department of Health), sought to obtain outcomes-based certification approval for PULSE Enterprise within the state’s Medicaid Enterprise System.

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2020

Audacious Inquiry offered PULSE COVID, a lightweight version of PULSE, at no-cost to state and federal agencies to support providers in surge sites and other alternate care facilities responding to the pandemic.

Audacious Inquiry launched PULSE Enterprise, leveraging national health information exchange networks to enable broad national adoption. PULSE Enterprise is adopted by the Texas Health Services Authority.

Audacious Inquiry partnered with Surescripts to make consolidated medication history data available in PULSE Enterprise.

California deployed PULSE in response to the wildfires in summer, 2020. Meanwhile, California also activated PLULSE and trained 80 providers from CAL-MAT and Health Corps for two COVID-19 response sites.

2019

ONC awarded Audacious Inquiry funding to expand the PULSE platform to improve usability, scalability, and flexibility to support a tighter integration with the national data exchange frameworks, positioning PULSE for broad national adoption.

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2018

The Sequoia Project launched the PULSE Advisory Council to build on early successes and identify opportunities for broader adoption of PULSE.

PULSE is deployed in support of the of the California Camp Fire response.

Emergency Census was deployed in response to Hurricane Michael.

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2017

PULSE was deployed in California for the first time during the fires in Napa, Lake, Sonoma, Mendocino, Butte, and Solano Counties.

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2015

With HHS Idea Lab funding, Audacious Inquiry validates the use case and begins technical development of PULSE for use in California. ​

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2014

ONC engaged Audacious Inquiry to evaluate use of HIE infrastructure for disaster preparedness and response. From this engagement, the “HIE Services in Support of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Medical Response” report was published.

Watch & Learn How PULSE Enterprise is Activated

News & Insights

Success Stories

Disasters bring unexpected use cases for HIE
Harvey Evacuees Leave Their Belongings—and Health Records—Behind
As Hurricane Florence hits, health information exchanges fill in patient data gaps
California’s red-hot test of health information exchange
A Health Information Exchange for Disasters

Learn how PULSE Enterprise can support your state’s disaster response needs.