diff --git a/services/real-time/app.coffee b/services/real-time/app.coffee
index f468ad2d49..6161e63a46 100644
--- a/services/real-time/app.coffee
+++ b/services/real-time/app.coffee
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ SessionSockets = require('session.socket.io')
 CookieParser = require("cookie-parser")
 
 DrainManager = require("./app/js/DrainManager")
+HealthCheckManager = require("./app/js/HealthCheckManager")
 
 # Set up socket.io server
 app = express()
@@ -64,6 +65,10 @@ app.get "/health_check/redis", (req, res, next) ->
 		if error?
 			logger.err {err: error}, "failed redis health check"
 			res.sendStatus 500
+		else if HealthCheckManager.isFailing()
+			status = HealthCheckManager.status()
+			logger.err {pubSubErrors: status}, "failed pubsub health check"
+			res.sendStatus 500
 		else
 			res.sendStatus 200
 
@@ -130,8 +135,9 @@ if Settings.continualPubsubTraffic
 	pubSubClient = redis.createClient(Settings.redis.documentupdater)
 
 	publishJob = (channel, cb)->
-		json = JSON.stringify({health_check:true, date: new Date().toString()})
+		checker = new HealthCheckManager(channel)
 		logger.debug {channel:channel}, "sending pub to keep connection alive"
+		json = JSON.stringify({health_check:true, key: checker.id, date: new Date().toString()})
 		pubSubClient.publish channel, json, (err)->
 			if err?
 				logger.err {err, channel}, "error publishing pubsub traffic to redis"
@@ -139,7 +145,7 @@ if Settings.continualPubsubTraffic
 
 	runPubSubTraffic = ->
 		async.map ["applied-ops", "editor-events"], publishJob, (err)->
-			setTimeout(runPubSubTraffic, 1000 * 60)
+			setTimeout(runPubSubTraffic, 1000 * 20)
 
 	runPubSubTraffic()
 
diff --git a/services/real-time/app/coffee/DocumentUpdaterController.coffee b/services/real-time/app/coffee/DocumentUpdaterController.coffee
index c4367cd652..1eb5d21274 100644
--- a/services/real-time/app/coffee/DocumentUpdaterController.coffee
+++ b/services/real-time/app/coffee/DocumentUpdaterController.coffee
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ redis = require("redis-sharelatex")
 rclient = redis.createClient(settings.redis.documentupdater)
 SafeJsonParse = require "./SafeJsonParse"
 EventLogger = require "./EventLogger"
+HealthCheckManager = require "./HealthCheckManager"
 metrics = require "metrics-sharelatex"
 
 MESSAGE_SIZE_LOG_LIMIT = 1024 * 1024 # 1Mb
@@ -34,6 +35,7 @@ module.exports = DocumentUpdaterController =
 				DocumentUpdaterController._processErrorFromDocumentUpdater(io, message.doc_id, message.error, message)
 			else if message.health_check?
 				logger.debug {message}, "got health check message in applied ops channel"
+				HealthCheckManager.check channel, message.key
 
 	_applyUpdateFromDocumentUpdater: (io, doc_id, update) ->
 		clientList = io.sockets.clients(doc_id)
diff --git a/services/real-time/app/coffee/HealthCheckManager.coffee b/services/real-time/app/coffee/HealthCheckManager.coffee
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..cd6b617b9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/real-time/app/coffee/HealthCheckManager.coffee
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+metrics = require "metrics-sharelatex"
+
+os = require "os"
+HOST = os.hostname()
+PID = process.pid
+COUNT = 0
+
+CHANNEL_MANAGER = {} # hash of event checkers by channel name
+CHANNEL_ERROR = {} # error status by channel name
+
+module.exports = class HealthCheckManager
+    # create an instance of this class which checks that an event with a unique
+    # id is received only once within a timeout
+    constructor: (@channel, timeout = 1000) ->
+        # unique event string
+        @id = "host=#{HOST}:pid=#{PID}:count=#{COUNT++}"
+        # count of number of times the event is received
+        @count = 0 
+        # after a timeout check the status of the count
+        @handler = setTimeout () =>
+            @setStatus()
+        , timeout
+        # use a timer to record the latency of the channel
+        @timer = new metrics.Timer("event.#{@channel}.latency")
+        # keep a record of these objects to dispatch on
+        CHANNEL_MANAGER[@channel] = @
+    processEvent: (id) ->
+        # if this is our event record it
+        if id == @id
+            @count++
+            @timer?.done()
+            @timer = null # only time the latency of the first event
+    setStatus: () ->
+        # if we saw the event anything other than a single time that is an error
+        error = (@count != 1)
+        CHANNEL_ERROR[@channel] = error
+
+    # class methods
+    @check: (channel, id) ->
+        # dispatch event to manager for channel
+        CHANNEL_MANAGER[channel]?.processEvent id
+    @status: () ->
+        # return status of all channels for logging
+        return CHANNEL_ERROR
+    @isFailing: () -> 
+        # check if any channel status is bad 
+        for channel, error of CHANNEL_ERROR
+            return true if error is true
+        return false
diff --git a/services/real-time/app/coffee/WebsocketLoadBalancer.coffee b/services/real-time/app/coffee/WebsocketLoadBalancer.coffee
index 8fed080b68..ffe6e820ca 100644
--- a/services/real-time/app/coffee/WebsocketLoadBalancer.coffee
+++ b/services/real-time/app/coffee/WebsocketLoadBalancer.coffee
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ SafeJsonParse = require "./SafeJsonParse"
 rclientPub = redis.createClient(Settings.redis.realtime)
 rclientSub = redis.createClient(Settings.redis.realtime)
 EventLogger = require "./EventLogger"
+HealthCheckManager = require "./HealthCheckManager"
 
 module.exports = WebsocketLoadBalancer =
 	rclientPub: rclientPub
@@ -53,4 +54,5 @@ module.exports = WebsocketLoadBalancer =
 					client.emit(message.message, message.payload...)
 			else if message.health_check?
 				logger.debug {message}, "got health check message in editor events channel"
+				HealthCheckManager.check channel, message.key
 		
diff --git a/services/real-time/test/unit/coffee/DocumentUpdaterControllerTests.coffee b/services/real-time/test/unit/coffee/DocumentUpdaterControllerTests.coffee
index c104646696..5ed274b36c 100644
--- a/services/real-time/test/unit/coffee/DocumentUpdaterControllerTests.coffee
+++ b/services/real-time/test/unit/coffee/DocumentUpdaterControllerTests.coffee
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ describe "DocumentUpdaterController", ->
 			"./SafeJsonParse": @SafeJsonParse =
 				parse: (data, cb) => cb null, JSON.parse(data)
 			"./EventLogger": @EventLogger = {checkEventOrder: sinon.stub()}
+			"./HealthCheckManager": {check: sinon.stub()}
 			"metrics-sharelatex": @metrics = {inc: sinon.stub()}
 
 	describe "listenForUpdatesFromDocumentUpdater", ->
diff --git a/services/real-time/test/unit/coffee/WebsocketLoadBalancerTests.coffee b/services/real-time/test/unit/coffee/WebsocketLoadBalancerTests.coffee
index 38c317e9fe..e786038ab7 100644
--- a/services/real-time/test/unit/coffee/WebsocketLoadBalancerTests.coffee
+++ b/services/real-time/test/unit/coffee/WebsocketLoadBalancerTests.coffee
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ describe "WebsocketLoadBalancer", ->
 			"./SafeJsonParse": @SafeJsonParse =
 				parse: (data, cb) => cb null, JSON.parse(data)
 			"./EventLogger": {checkEventOrder: sinon.stub()}
+			"./HealthCheckManager": {check: sinon.stub()}
 		@io = {}
 		@WebsocketLoadBalancer.rclientPub = publish: sinon.stub()
 		@WebsocketLoadBalancer.rclientSub =