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Pulse

Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergencies

PULSE Community is now supported by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). The PULSE Advisory Council is now the Public Health Community of Practice.

View ONC Pulse page | View Public Health Community of Practice page

What is Pulse?

The Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergencies (PULSE) is a nationwide health IT disaster response platform that can be deployed at the city, county, or state level to authenticate disaster healthcare volunteer providers. PULSE allows disaster workers to query and view patient documents from all connected healthcare organizations.

PULSE Community is now supported by ONC. The PULSE Advisory Council is now the Public Health Community of Practice.

Learn More

The PULSE Advisory Council is now the Public Health Community of Practice. Learn more here.

NEVER MISS A BEAT

PULSE Milestones

2021

  • January 2021 – The PULSE Advisory Council is now the Emergency Preparedness Information Workgroup, part of The Sequoia Project’s Interoperability Matters initiative. 

2018

  • January 2018 – Sequoia became a steward for PULSE, as a public-private initiative;  Advisory Council was launched
  • March 2018 – Sequoia publishes PULSE resource center
  • July 2018 – PULSE activated for Shasta and Lake County, CA fires
  • November 2018 – PULSE deployed and used to treat individuals displaced by the fires in Butte County, CA
  • PULSE was activated in November to support disaster response for the Northern California wildfires

2017

  • EMSA awards Ai the PULSE Operator contract
  • PULSE goes live in July
  • PULSE was activated in October to support disaster response for the Northern California wildfires
  • PULSE was activated in December to support disaster response for the Southern California wildfires. Within one week, five organizations were rapidly onboarded to eHealth Exchange and connected to PULSE (Kaiser, Dignity, Sutter, CVS, Cottage, Providence)

2016

  • EMSA releases PULSE Development RFO
  • EMSA awards Ai the PULSE Development contract

2015

  • The HHS Ideas Lab funds use case and technical architecture development of PULSE. Subsequently, the “Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergencies” report was published.

2014

  • ONC Engages 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.

2013

  • California Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) holds its first HIE in EMS Summit.

History of PULSE

PULSE was originally conceived by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT following Hurricane Katrina. Well-meaning physicians and providers flocked to shelters to help, but there was an inability to confirm medical credentials of these volunteers or access health records of evacuees.

In late 2014, ONC and ASPR received 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.

Ultimately, PULSE can be made available in any geographic area to support healthcare professionals and first responders caring for displaced individuals, or volunteer healthcare workers who are deployed to a disaster area outside of their normal health IT environment.