“Doctor as a drug” in a stroke follow-up

Abstract

Each year about 400 000 people in Russia get strokes. Whereas an acute treatment takes place in specialized intensive care units in hospitals, follow-up is handed over to general (rarely – private) practitioner. The majority of stroke survivors show low adherence to follow-up resulting in repeated hospitalizations and growth of multi-morbidity burden. With COVID-19 pandemic negatively affecting availability of medical services and increasing health risks for stroke survivors, a physician-patient relation becomes the means of persuading patients to healthpromoting behaviour.