About TeleStroke
The Burden of Stroke
In developed countries, stroke is the third leading cause of death. Each year, stroke occurs in more than 700,000 patients, leaving many with disabilities and unable to resume their previous lifestyle or employment. This makes the social and economic impact of stroke one of the most devastating in medicine.
View sample clips of the NIH Stroke Scale exam, recorded from actual TeleStroke patient consultations. [
View Clips ]
There is an FDA-approved medicine (tissue plasminogen activator, tPA) that in some patients can help reverse the
disability of stroke if given within the first 3 hours of stroke.
So, “time is brain” when it comes to the assessment and treatment of stroke patients.
The faster a patient receives proper treatment for stroke, the better the chances for recovery.
That’s what could make the Partners TeleStroke program an important component of your patients’ stroke care.
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Helping Patients From Afar
By establishing a telemedicine link using videoconferencing and image sharing technology, stroke specialists from Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals can examine patients at remote hospitals miles away
to help diagnose the patient's ailment and recommend a plan of care.
80% of strokes are ischemic strokes - an affliction in which a blood clot, formed in another part of the body, travels to a smaller blood vessel in the brain and becomes lodged, blocking the blood flow to that area.
"Patients are arriving at smaller community hospitals who are candidates for this clot buster therapy and in some cases may not be getting it."
Dr. Lee Schwamm
Massachusetts General Hospital
One form of treatment is to administer Tissue Plasminogen Activator (tPA), a clot busting drug that can greatly reduce the disability resulting from a stroke. tPA must be administered within 3 hours of symptom onset.
Unfortunately, some hospitals lack the resources to make this determination and cannot physically transfer the patient quickly enough to enable them to receive this therapy if warranted. This is where TeleStroke comes in. Subscribing hospitals can receive acute stroke care for patients without physically transferring the patient for an exam.
"I can examine someone very interactively with the help of a physician or a nurse on the other end and I can make a determination of the stroke severity and the type of stroke by looking at the patient and at the brain image," Dr. Schwamm said.
"It's almost like being in the room."
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