Pulse

Predicting patient flow before it happens. A predictive analytics and data visualization platform for a Harrisburg, PA hospital. Captured data across multiple input sources to synthesize, visualize, and surface actionable insights for hospital staff — enabling proactive staffing based on forecasted unit utilization.

The core insight: patient flow between hospital units is predictable. An ER influx predicts volume increases in ICU and other downstream units hours later. Pulse made those patterns visible and actionable so staff could plan ahead rather than react.

Deployed across multiple hospital units with dozens of nurses using it daily. Designed intuitive dashboard visualizations optimized for busy clinicians — glanceable data displays that communicated unit status to people mid-shift who didn’t have time to study charts. Built in a HIPAA-compliant, skunkworks-style environment.

Ran quarterly on-site sessions with nursing staff. Combined qualitative interviews with quantitative usage data to drive each round of iteration. Deeply collaborative — nurses shaped the product as much as the design team did.

The project was ultimately killed by the hospital department funding it — because the tool was so effective it risked replacing their function entirely. The product worked; the politics didn’t.