The Western States Stroke Consortium Telestroke Project (P7.120)

This study of telestroke utilizes four networks within the Western States Stroke Consortium (WSSC), encompassing rural and underserved areas in four states.Objectives:The objectives are to determine whether telemedicine consultations for stroke patients will improve care per guidelines compared to stroke patients treated at control hospitals and to determine whether the care provided via telemedicine consultations will be similar to care per guidelines provided to stroke patients treated at hub hospitals.Design:Prospective observational study recruiting from four networks with a 500 subject goal. Subjects with stroke onset within 12 hours are consecutively enrolled and followed 90 days. Data entered on-line utilizing a common case report form. Each site will be divided into three cohorts:· Hub hospitals: JCAHO-certified Primary Stroke Centers providing telemedicine support;· Spoke hospitals: non-stroke center certified sites, where patients are treated with consultation using telemedicine technology from hub hospital physicians;· Control hospitals: non-stroke center certified sites with no telemedicine servicesResults:Data from 507 subjects were entered into the secure, on-line database. Initial results revealed that reperfusion therapy with thrombolysis was 20% in the control cohort, 36% in the hub cohort and 53% in the spoke cohort, which was statistically significant. No significant differences were seen in the accuracy of the choice to treat with thro...
Source: Neurology - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Cerebrovascular Disease and Interventional Neurology: Issues in Acute Stroke Treatment Source Type: research