Pilot-turned-founder Laura Epstein is tackling one of the most pressing challenges in aerial logistics.
According to the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS), there are more than 100,000 people in the U.S. waiting for an organ transplant. But each year only about 45,000 transplants are performed, and more than 28,000 donated organs are wasted.
An average of 13 people per day die waiting for a transplant, per UNOS. Epstein founded Pulse Charter Connect to tackle one of the biggest factors she believes is driving those outcomes—communication between air charters and hospitals.
“Rather than the transplant coordinator making a series of phone calls to then have everybody basically playing phone tag across the board with brokers, intermediaries, and the actual charter companies,” Epstein told FLYING, “we expedited that by making it all one system that will send out all of the requests to the different parties in parallel.”
Until August, UNOS held a 40-year exclusive contract to handle organ allocation for the federal Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. But the dissolution of that agreement by Congress has opened the door for companies like Pulse Charter Connect to shake up the space.
The company in April 2024 launched a platform for hospital transplant coordinators, vetted transportation vendors, and pilots, synchronizing communication and using a matching algorithm to determine the most efficient vessel for each organ. Within a year of launch, it helped fly 65 organs across the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic.
Now, Epstein is looking to get more hospitals, charter providers, and pilots on board.
Organ Transport Problem
Epstein has an aerospace engineering degree from the University of Virginia, where she received the Women With Wings scholarship and obtained her private pilot certificate. She later spent time modernizing pilot data link communication (CPDLC) and leading programmatic risk management for the branch of the FAA that oversees navigation and weather services.
While pursuing her Master of Business Administration at the University of Chicago, Epstein consulted for an air charter company that flew organ surgical teams. She also has several loved ones who have required transplants.
“It really spoke to me to learn how to add efficiencies to this, because I think it’s oftentimes rare to find a use case for aviation that does social good,” Epstein said. “That was what really excited me to go into organ transportation.”
Epstein quickly spotted inefficiencies in the process. For one, stakeholders are spending too much time on the phone. Her CPDLC work focused on challenges like hearback-readback errors and excessive traffic on the intercoms pilots use for clearance. Much of the effort involved modernizing from audio to text.
“What we see today when different parties are brokering flights for transplant is just a series of phone calls, oftentimes with a lot of subbrokers,” she said. “We really want to digitize that, with it being accessible on mobile and desktop for different users.”
Another obstacle is the growing distance for organ transport flights due to advances in technology and a push for more equitable allocation. UNOS, for example, switched to a new matching framework because allocations were concentrated near transplant centers, many of them in wealthy areas. Now, the average organ transport flight takes longer.
“A large issue in this space now is pilots timing out on these missions because more organs are traveling further,” Epstein said. “The procurements are also becoming much more complicated, so the wait time on the ground is just extending by a few hours.”
Pilos may only have a few hours to complete the trip. A healthy donor heart, for example, is only viable for about four to six hours. Adding to the logistical headache, hospital transplant teams must coordinate the procurement themselves, making communication essential.
“Flying an organ transplant mission is one of the most time-sensitive and purpose-driven operations a pilot can undertake,” Chris Tipsword, chief pilot at Corporate Flight, an executive charter provider, told FLYING.
How It Works
Pulse Charter Connect uses artificial intelligence to simplify the process for all involved.
“The goal is to streamline organ and surgical team transportation and communication,” Epstein said. “So in general, it’s functionally a two-sided marketplace.”
On one side are hospital transplant coordinators, who are often required to fly to the donor hospital themselves to procure the organ. On the other are transportation vendors, which the company vets to ensure they have Part 135 certification or Argus, Wyvern, or IS-BAO safety ratings.
“We’re defaulting to what has been recommended in the industry or by our transplant center customers,” Epstein said. “But the general rule of thumb is we’re looking for some of those safety certificates.”
The company also vets charter providers’ insurance liability limits to determine which can fly organs as well as personnel. It conducts site visits to ensure the aircraft are fit for the job. Some hospitals, for example, do not allow staff to fly on turboprops.
“We’re basically a lead generator,” Epstein said, “and then we’re also helping them fill unused capacity.”
The platform stores data on each transplant center, such as its requirements and standard operating procedures. It tells hospital staff where aircraft are positioned and the likelihood of getting a flight based on price.
“We’re really empowering the transportation vendors to quote the price that is right for the mission,” Epstein said. “And oftentimes, with this competitive marketplace, they are bidding cheaper than what is being seen by the brokers currently in the space for the transplant centers.”
Pulse Charter Connect generally understands hospitals’ equipment needs—transporting a liver, for example, requires an OrganOx machine to sustain it. But if a trip requires special machinery, the platform can find a plane with ample space, electronic hookups, or a low pitch angle to prevent it from toppling over.
An AI-powered software matches the trip to the optimal vendor—considering factors like proximity and fleet or crew availability—to eliminate unproductive phone calls. Vendors receive a text, email, or in-app alert detailing the request, which they may accept or deny. They can also suggest an alternative landing spot if the requested site has an obstruction, such as a short runway. Pulse Charter Connect handles ground transportation and other logistics from the airport to the hospital. Human staff have 24/7 oversight of the system.
“This is a very risk averse intersection of both aviation and hospitals, so we definitely are not creating this to all be AI-operated,” Epstein said.
Pulse Charter Connect is also a tool for pilots themselves. Epstein said the company is developing a feature that will allow them to track the mission from beginning to end.
“For example, when they’re waiting on the ground for the procurement surgery to occur, they’re getting texts about what’s happening and when they need to be there,” she said. “We’re creating a whole channel system that will send them the proper notifications when the team is 15 minutes out, when they’re five minutes out, because they’re really racing against the clock to come back.”
Tipsword said Pulse Charter Connect has already “seamlessly integrated” into Corporate Flight’s workflow.
“Their platform aligns every stakeholder from dispatch to the surgical team, so I can focus entirely on executing a safe, efficient flight,” he said. “That level of precision doesn’t just make my job easier—it plays a direct role in saving lives.”
So far, about 20 charter providers have signed on to Pulse Charter Connect. The company seeks out vendors in areas near transplant centers, with operations based mainly on the West Coast. But the aim is to expand nationwide.
Epstein said traffic-heavy cities such as Los Angeles are prime candidates for the service. So too are spread-out rural areas where trips are typically longer. Hospitals in the middle of the country, she said, struggle to find transport providers in the first place.
“We haven’t seen anybody that doesn’t require charter flights, especially with how organ allocation is going,” Epstein said. “They’re being allocated further and further distances.”
Bolstering the firm is an oversubscribed $2 million seed funding round in May, which it plans to deploy in support of expansion. In the meantime, Epstein is focused on making the platform as simple as possible for pilots, vendors, and hospital staff.
“As we continue to grow, the goal with the network is to make it as efficient as possible, and to make sure that we have the proper capacity for different requests across the network,” she said.
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