In-Transit Telemedicine Speeds Ischemic Stroke Treatment

Abstract

The online-only Data Supplement is available with this article at http://stroke.ahajournals.org/lookup/suppl

A scoping review of pre-hospital technology to assist ambulance personnel with patient diagnosis or stratification during the emergency assessment of suspected stroke

“…Technologies employed by included studies [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] were best described using three categories: blood biomarkers [22,23]; pre-hospital imaging [24,25] and mobile telemedicine/telestroke (including transfer of audio and/or visual information or relevant data) [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. These are summarised in Table 1. Most studies were conducted in the USA [24,26,27,[34][35][36][37][38][39], followed by Germany [28]…”

“…We identified 12 mobile telemedicine technologies reported across 15 studies [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. Descriptions are summarised in Table 4.…”

“…The outcomes are summarised in Table 5. Eleven studies were single-centre [26, 27, 30-33, 35-38, 40], one of which was large [30], and four were moderate-to-large multi-centre studies [28,29,34,39]. From a design perspective, this included: development and pilot testing (n = 2), feasibility and pilot testing (n = 3), mixed methods pilot test (n = 1), retrospective before and after (n = 1), prospective cohort (n = 4), a prospective non-randomised controlled trial (n = 1), protocol: single-centre RCT (n = 1), single-centre RCT (n = 1).…”

“…Results not yet available transferred from the ambulance to hospital. Earlier studies [26][27][28][29][30] utilised technology with lower resolution and slower transmission speeds than later studies [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] employing contemporary technology such as high definition, bi-directional video communication and 4G networks. Systems were either purpose-built or adapted from commercially available technology (e.g.…”

Mobile health for stroke: a promising concept for research and practice

“…Mobile health apps with educational content on stroke symptoms are being used to help the lay public and healthcare providers to identify stroke, activate emergency responses and facilitate risk assessment for prompt timely recognition and treatment of stroke thus helping overcome delays in health seeking after stroke which is a prime barrier to optimal management of acute stroke (8)(9)(10). In acute stroke care, telemedicine based interventions, adapted to an mHealth based platform have been shown to expedite access to safe and efficacious thrombolytic therapy in both resource-replete and rural settings with improved outcomes for ischemic stroke (11)(12)(13). Still it should be noted that despite the rapid growth of mobile health applications, there are few culturally-appropriate and sustainable stroke-specific apps (14).…”